It was the marriage no one expected and the divorce that, in hindsight, feels almost inevitable. When David Geffen, the 82-year-old billionaire entertainment mogul, wed former model Donovan Michaels, then in his twenties, in a quiet Beverly Hills ceremony in 2023, the absence of a prenuptial agreement raised eyebrows even among their friends. Two years later, that missing document has become the cornerstone of one of the most fascinating—and bitter—legal dramas of the year.
The question is as simple as it is divisive: should Donovan walk away with a meaningful share of Geffen’s fortune, or does the brief marriage entitle him to nothing?
A Case for Donovan: Promises, Power, and Lost Years
Supporters of Michaels argue that this is not a frivolous cash grab but rather a story about imbalance—of power, wealth, and expectation. Their relationship began in 2016, on SeekingArrangements, when Geffen paid $10,000 for their first date. What might have remained a footnote blossomed into a nearly decade-long partnership, culminating in marriage.
Michaels claims that over those years, Geffen made verbal commitments of lifelong security, even floating the idea that one day the younger man would inherit Rising Sun, the mogul’s $590 million superyacht. “A money suck,” Geffen allegedly told him at one point, only to retract the suggestion later. For Donovan, the yacht became a symbol of the promises that drew him into Geffen’s orbit—promises of permanence, stability, and belonging in a rarefied world.
The lawsuit Michaels filed this spring outlines something more troubling than a simple financial dispute. It accuses Geffen of coercion—pressuring him into cosmetic procedures, dictating his lifestyle, and, ultimately, abandoning him without resources. His lawyers describe the abrupt eviction from their New York home, allegedly timed to coincide with Geffen’s glittering social calendar in Venice, as the cruelest of ironies: while Geffen danced among the global elite, Donovan says he was left without a place to live.
To his defenders, this is the human cost of marrying into extraordinary wealth. Michaels surrendered his twenties—years he might have otherwise spent building a career or independence—because he believed in Geffen’s assurances. If those assurances evaporated at the first sign of marital collapse, shouldn’t the courts now intervene to make him whole?
A Case for Geffen: Generosity, Boundaries, and Opportunism
Yet there is another side to this story, one that casts Michaels not as victim but as opportunist. Geffen’s legal team has dismissed the claims as “salacious lies,” crafted to extract a fortune from a man who, they argue, was generous far beyond obligation.
Geffen’s counter-filings paint Michaels as someone who exploited the relationship’s final months, spending lavishly on escorts and OnlyFans subscriptions while cultivating “numerous other relationships.” Far from being cast out, they say, Michaels remains ensconced in one of Geffen’s New York apartments—an apartment originally purchased for a housekeeper—while continuing to receive monthly financial support.
Crucially, Geffen’s lawyers reject the idea that the couple even shared a conventional marital life. “They never spent a night in the same bed, let alone the same room,” one attorney told the Wall Street Journal. For Geffen, this marriage was more ceremonial than substantive, and certainly not the basis for a billion-dollar redistribution.
Why, his supporters ask, should a brief, two-year legal marriage undo the work of a lifetime? Geffen’s empire is the result of decades of instinct and innovation, from launching Asylum Records to shaping DreamWorks. To hand over a fortune—or a superyacht—to a partner with no financial stake in its creation feels, to them, not like fairness but folly.
Who Deserves What?
Ultimately, this divorce forces us to confront an uncomfortable question about wealth, power, and relationships across generational divides. Was Donovan Michaels a young man seduced by promises that evaporated when they no longer served his benefactor?
Or was he a willing participant in a bargain that collapsed when the benefits ended?
The courts will sort through the contracts and counterclaims. But the cultural verdict is less certain. Should David Geffen, one of the most powerful figures in entertainment, be compelled to share his fortune with the husband who says he was promised the world?
Or should Donovan accept that access to such a world was always temporary—that in the rarefied air of the super-rich, nothing is guaranteed?
In the end, the case is as much about what we believe marriage means as it is about who said what aboard a superyacht. And that may be the most expensive question of all.
Rob Shuter is a celebrity journalist, talk-show host, former publicist, and author of The 4 Word Answer. He hosts Naughty But Nice with Rob, a top 20 iTunes podcast. Follow his latest columns at robshuter.substack.com.