Australia’s richest couple have confirmed their shock split — but their three glamorous children will still miss out on most of the family’s $35 billion fortune.
With Australia’s richest couple confirming the end of their 31-year marriage, Nicola Forrest becomes the country’s second-wealthiest woman — but their three glamorous children will still miss out on most of the family’s $35 billion fortune.
Mining billionaires Andrew and Nicola Forrest said in a shock announcement late on Wednesday that they had “made the decision to live apart”, while insisting the strategic direction of their business Fortescue Metals Group would be unaffected.
“Our friendship and commitment to our family remains strong,” they said in a joint statement to The Australian Financial Review. “There is no impact on the operations, control or direction of Fortescue, Minderoo or Tattarang.”
It is understood they have no plans to divorce. The couple share three adult children, all in their 20s — Grace, Sophia and Sydney.
Sophia Forrest, left, Sydney Forrest and Grace Forrest. Picture: Supplied
‘Let’s not die wealthy’
Mr Forrest, known by his nickname “Twiggy”, was ranked the second richest person in the country on The Australian’s rich list this year, worth a whopping $35.21 billion.
Fellow iron ore magnate Gina Rinehart, worth $37.1 billion, took out the top spot.
The Forrests have previously revealed that their children won’t inherit the vast majority of their wealth, with the fortune instead set to be distributed to a range of charitable causes, including Indigenous support, education reform and cancer research.
Speaking to the ABC’s Australian Story last year, Mrs Forrest said she didn’t want her children to be “be burdened” by such immense funds.
“We live in a home and I have a great life – but the things that are most important in life, money doesn’t buy that,” she told the program. “Children don’t benefit from thinking they’re going to inherit a huge amount of money.”
Mr Forrest echoed his wife’s sentiment, saying it was an easy move. “The decision to give away everything but the personal things and goods was easy,” he said. “You know, let’s not die wealthy. What’s the point of that?”
Successful actor
Sophia Forrest, an actor who has appeared in TV shows Barons and Love Child and the 2018 superhero film Aquaman, had earlier said she was glad she was “not entitled” to her father’s fortune.
“Inheritance has never really made sense to me,” she told Sunday Life magazine in 2017.
“You watch it tear families apart and it baffles me. You’re not entitled to that money, you haven’t earned it, you haven’t worked for it — I don’t see why you think it should be yours. So we all agreed to give it all away. It’s a relief to know it’s not my problem. It’s going to better things. I don’t need it. I’m going to work and make it on my own.”
She added that growing up, she “shied away from being associated with ‘Twiggy’”.
“Not my dad — I’m so proud of him, but ‘Twiggy’ is a media construct,” she said. “[Because of it] people just tended to make assumptions and think the worst of you, in a way.”
Sophia, who was widely rumoured to be dating Russell Crowe several years ago after starring alongside the older actor in his WWI drama The Water Diviner — a relationship hotly denied by Crowe — last year announced she was engaged to her longtime girlfriend Zara Zoe.
“She makes heaven a place on earth,” Sophia posted on Instagram.
Despite not sharing in her father’s billions, Sophia won’t be left homeless. In 2021, The AFR reported she had forked out $1.8 million — no finance needed — for a two-storey penthouse in Sydney’s Waterloo.
Anti-slavery champion
Grace Forrest, meanwhile, has emerged as a high-profile antislavery advocate.
The eldest child co-founded Walk Free in 2011 under the family’s philanthropic venture, the Minderoo Foundation. Each year Walk Free publishes its flagship report, the Global Slavery Index.
“Modern slavery permeates every aspect of our society,” she said in May at the release of the 2023 report.
“It is woven through our clothes, lights up our electronics, and seasons our food. At its core, modern slavery is a manifestation of extreme inequality. It is a mirror held to power, reflecting who in any given society has it and who does not.”
Grace’s passion for eradicating slavery stemmed to when she was 16, after she visited a Nepalese orphanage with her father that, it turned out, was actually part of a child sex trafficking ring.
“When I discovered this, I made a commitment of Grace and my family that we’d start to pursue it and it took all of the family because we’re taking on what is one of the best-funded, biggest criminal industries in the world,” Mr Forrest told news.com.au in 2017.
Grace was named Young Western Australian of the Year 2021 for her antislavery work.
The couple have ‘made the decision to live apart’. Picture: Tricia Watkinson
How fortune is being split
The statement announcing their separation was sent to The AFR after the outlet questioned a transaction last month that moved more than $1.1 billion worth of Fortescue shares into a new company called Coaxial Ventures.
That company is wholly owned by Mrs Forrest.
The transaction followed a change to the ownership structure of the family’s private investment company Tattarang in February, where Mr Forrest gave half of his Tattarang shareholding to his wife.
That would push Mrs Forrest’s paper fortune above $10 billion, in addition to private holdings, The Australian reported.
That means she would become the country’s second richest woman after Ms Rinehart, jumping ahead of Canva co-founder Melanie Perkins, who shares a more than $10 billion fortune with husband and fellow tech entrepreneur Cliff Obrecht.
Fortescue is the eighth-largest company on the ASX by market capitalisation.
The former couple also stressed on Wednesday they were aligned on the future of the Minderoo Foundation.
“We will continue our shared mission to create and gift our wealth to tackle community and global challenges, as recently shown by last month’s donation of one-fifth of our Fortescue shareholding to Minderoo Foundation,” the joint statement added.
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