This billion-dollar divorce is one of the costliest in U.S. history

This billion-dollar divorce is one of the costliest in U.S. history
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Oil magnate Harold Hamm has been ordered to pay his ex-wife almost $1 billion in one of the biggest divorce judgments yet in the United States — but that's not even close to what Sue Ann Hamm's lawyers sought.

The Hamms did not have a prenuptial agreement. Their divorce trial ended in October after nine weeks, and on Monday, Oklahoma Special Judge Howard Haralson ruling that Sue Ann Hamm will receive $999.5 million, a $17.5 million ranch in Carmel, California, and a $4.7 million Oklahoma City home. Her attorneys had asked that the former couple split their estate, estimated to be worth at least $17 billion, Reuters reports.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.