As the song notes, "breaking up is hard to do"—especially if you're a celebrity. When there's millions (even billions!) on the line and a lot of media attention focused on the couple, things can get messy. This is particularly true when the couple got together without signing a prenuptial agreement that would include a plan to split assets in case of divorce. Often, these marriages took place before one member of the couple became a celebrity—and, in the absence of a prenup, the other member can be entitled to up to half of all assets.
It's important to note, here, that these are just the settlements we're aware of. Some of these are estimated (and weren't actually made public). Sometimes these settlements can include lucrative properties that aren't part of the lump sum, or pricey child support setups. Inflation can change the value of a settlement; $50 million in 1990, for example, is a lot more today. Either way, though, these dissolutions were très expensive, both for the time and now. And lots of them were très dramatic, too!
