We see it all of the time. In fact, we probably see celebrity divorces more than we see divorces in our own hometown because the media is all over who had an affair here or there or whatever the hell happened. So though this particular case is no different, it’s got a bit of a twist to it.

Harold Hamm is number 35 on Forbes’ richest people list, and he’s been married for 25 years to his second wife, Sue Ann Hamm. That’s pretty impressive, considering how that kind of money makes so many people feel like they have the freedom to be douche bags to just about everyone around them. I guess it finally got to Hamm, because his wife is allegedly divorcing him, claiming he had an affair (or two) with another woman (or two).

Sue Ann says she discovered the affair in 2010, but she only filed for divorce last May, and even now, nothing has really happened except for the fact that the divorce is finally part of the public eye. Oh, and the part where his wife may get up to $1.7 billion in in a settlement (or more). I’m guessing why this divorce is suddenly in the headlines.

No one knows whether the Hamms signed a prenuptial or not, and that’s kind of what’s up in the air right now. If they didn’t, then the settlement may become a real thing. If they did, then old man Hamm (who is now 67) has nothing to worry about.

But before a bunch of you go “whoa, well, she put up with his snot for 25 years, she totally deserves something from that cheating bastard!” which I doubt will happen anyway because I’m a chick and a lot of you aren’t, this guy really earned every penny.

Harold Hamm didn’t grow up some rich kid. He started working when he was twenty, and he was scrubbing oil barrels. He came from a HUGE freaking family with thirteen kids, and he was the youngest, too. To pay for college, he decided to drill a bit on his own instead of being the scrubber, and he happened to stumble upon a 75-barrel-a-day oil well of his own.

Continental, his company, was founded in 1967. That’s over twenty years before he met and married Sue Ann. In the 1990’s, he discovered the largest field of oil that had been discovered since the 1960’s. That damn oil field produces nearly 700,000 barrels a day now, which is like ten percent of America’s output. All because of one dude that wanted to study Geology in college.

Hamm didn’t need no woman behind him to get where he is today, so as far as I’m concerned, he doesn’t owe her anything. Sure, he might be a cheating douche, but he supported their two now-adult children, sends them through college, and has always allowed his wife to do as she pleases with his massive amount of money. As far as I’m concerned, that’s a free ride and she has nothing to bitch about if she only gets a measly few hundred thousand dollars from the divorce proceedings.

The best part is that Harold says they have been living separately since 2005 anyway, though they have stayed married and he’s supported her for the last eight years, too. I mean really. If they’ve been separated, then how does she have the right to pull the “he cheated on me!” card five years after they stopped living together?

Her lawyers are saying that since they continued to appear together, raise children together, file tax returns together, and work together, that they aren’t really all that separate.

Whatever, lawyers. The man should keep his money, all $11 billion of it, and this woman should just get two of their four houses, three of their six cars, and half of their ZERO debt. She’s almost 70 years old. It’s not like she needs a whole lot more.

[Image via Flickr/david_shankbone]