Charles Fipke and Marlene Fipke divorced after 20 years of marriage. The settlement was reportedly an estimated $200M. See the full timeline.
Figures are reported estimates. Last updated Oct 2026.
Canadian diamond discoverer's divorce, reported at about $200 million.
Charles Fipke is a Canadian geologist from British Columbia who found the first major diamond deposit in North America, and Marlene Fipke was his wife through the long years in which he searched for it. The couple lived in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley, and they raised two children. For much of the marriage the Fipkes lived on a modest income while he spent months in the field, and their fortunes changed dramatically after the discovery became public in the early 1990s.
Fipke spent about a decade tracing tiny mineral indicators across the Canadian north, funded by loans and partners, before he found a rich field of diamond-bearing rock near Lac de Gras in the Northwest Territories in 1991. The discovery set off one of the largest staking rushes in Canadian history. He and his partners developed the Ekati mine with BHP, and Fipke's share was worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Most of that wealth appeared during the marriage, and much of it before the divorce.
The couple were married through the lean years of the search and the sudden riches that followed the 1991 discovery. The marriage ended around 2000, when the Ekati mine was in production and Fipke's stake had a clear and very large value. Fipke later became a prominent figure in Canadian mining and in local business in Kelowna.
The settlement was reported at about $200 million, an estimate repeated in lists of the most expensive divorces. The terms were not published in full. The amount made it among the largest in Canada at the time, and an unusual example of a divorce in which the wealth came from a single scientific discovery.
The couple had been married for roughly two decades, and the whole of Fipke's fortune stemmed from work done during the marriage, including the years of poor pay. British Columbia law provides for a presumption of equal division of family assets, and Marlene's support during the lean period made her claim particularly strong.
Fipke continued to invest in mining and in other businesses, including a winery and an interest in technology. He remained rich after the divorce, and his name is still associated with the Ekati mine and with the wider Canadian diamond industry, which became one of the largest in the world.
The Fipke case is similar in size to the Polsky case and is one of the few in which a natural-resources discovery rather than a corporation created the fortune. Like the Musk and Justine case, it highlights how a spouse who supports someone through the difficult early years can share in a later windfall.
Fipke's search for diamonds was so unusual that Wired later told it as an adventure story. He is credited with starting a Canadian diamond industry that did not exist before 1991. Some lists place his divorce in 2000, though dates vary. The $200 million figure is a media estimate.
Marlene Fipke's reported settlement was about $200 million.
They married in 1980 and divorced in 2000, a marriage of roughly 20 years.
No prenuptial agreement was reported.
Yes, the family is reported to include 2 children.
Reported assets include: Mining stakes, Kelowna property, winery interests.
The couple had been married for roughly two decades, and the whole of Fipke's fortune stemmed from work done during the marriage, including the years of poor pay. British Columbia law provides for a presumption of equal division of family assets, and Marlene's support during the lean period made her claim particularly strong.
* Settlement terms were not publicly disclosed. This figure is an estimate.