Telegram Founder to Bequeath $17 Billion Fortune to Over 100 Children
Pavel Durov, the billionaire co-founder of the messaging platform Telegram, claims he has fathered over 100 children and intends to bequeath his estimated $17 billion fortune to them.
In a recent interview with the French magazine Le Point, published on June 19, the 40-year-old Russian entrepreneur shared that he has six “official” children, but has fathered many more through sperm donations.
“I am the official father to six children, whom I had with three different partners,” Durov explained. “The rest were conceived through my anonymous donations. The clinic where I began donating sperm fifteen years ago to support a friend informed me that over 100 babies were conceived this way across 12 countries.”
With an estimated net worth of $17.1 billion, as reported by Forbes, Durov plans to divide his wealth among all his children, although they will have to wait until they are older to access their inheritance.
“I decided that my children will not have access to my wealth until thirty years from today,” Durov said. “I want them to experience life as normal individuals, to cultivate self-reliance, and not to depend on their bank accounts.”
“I wish to emphasize that I treat all my children equally: those conceived naturally and those conceived via my sperm donations. They are all my children and will share the same rights! I don’t want my kids to come into conflict after my passing,” he noted.
Durov spoke about his extensive lineage in a Telegram post back in July 2024, stating, “I recently found out that I have over 100 biological children. How can this be possible for someone who has never been married and prefers solitude?”
He recounted that a friend requested a sperm donation years ago because “he and his wife couldn’t conceive due to a fertility issue.”
Durov agreed, noting that “the clinic director remarked that ‘high-quality donor material’ was scarce and that it was my civic duty to donate more sperm to help additional couples anonymously.”
“Fast forward to 2024, my prior donation activities have aided over a hundred couples in 12 nations in having children,” he added.
Durov mentioned that he plans to “open-source” his DNA “so that my biological children can locate one another more easily,” expressing no regrets about his role as a donor.
He co-founded Telegram with his older brother, Nikolai Durov, in 2013. In August 2024, Durov was arrested and faced charges in France, including complicity in distributing child pornography and drug trafficking related to Telegram, which boasts 1 billion active monthly users. He denies all accusations against him.
“It’s utterly ridiculous. Just because criminals use our messaging platform among many others doesn’t make those who operate it criminals,” he told Le Point last Thursday. “Nothing has ever been proven that implicates me in any wrongdoing.”
