Telegram Founder Pavel Durov Says His 100+ Children Will Inherit Fortune: What’s His Net Worth?

Pavel Durov, CEO and co-founder of the Telegram messaging app, revealed in a recent interview that he plans to pass his fortune to the hundreds of children he’s fathered. Speaking with French magazine Le Point, Durov said he has biological children he raised with three different women, as well as others he conceived with the sperm he donated, but they will all get his inheritance.

“They are all my children and will all have the same rights. I don’t want them to tear each other apart after my death,” Durov told the outlet, adding that he wrote his will recently.

What did Pavel Durov say about fathering over 100 children?

The Telegram founder went to social media last year and publicly spoke about why he decided to have more than a hundred children. Durov told his followers that it was a doctor who convinced him to have so many children. The doctor, according to Durov, told him he’s blessed with “high quality donor material,” so it’s his civic duty to donate sperm. As a result, Durov continued to donate his sperm in a span of 15 years, CNN reported.

Durov said he wrote his will now because he wants to protect his children if something unexpected happens.

“My work involves risks – defending freedoms earns you many enemies, including within powerful states,” he said. “I want to protect my children, but also the company I created, Telegram. I want Telegram to forever remain faithful to the values I defend.”

What is Pavel Durov’s net worth?

While a Bloomberg report revealed that Durov is worth about $13.9 billion, the 40-year-old tech guru said that estimate is “theoretical.”

“Since I’m not selling Telegram, it doesn’t matter. I don’t have this money in a bank account. My liquid assets are much lower – and they don’t come from Telegram: they come from my investment in bitcoin in 2013,” Durov told Le Point.

With Durov planning to keep ownership of Telegram for many more years, he said his children will be waiting a while before they take over.

“I decided that my children would not have access to my fortune until a period of 30 years has elapsed, starting from today,” he said. “I want them to live like normal people, to build themselves up alone, to learn to trust themselves, to be able to create, not to be dependent on a bank account.”