Pavel Durov, the Russian-born CEO of Telegram, has announced what may be one of the most unusual inheritance plans in recent memory. He says he wants to split his fortune among more than 100 children he claims to have fathered. They must, however, wait thirty years before accessing any of the money.
He is currently facing serious criminal charges in France. Legal pressure forced him to consider what would happen to his empire if his situation worsened. But the story behind those 100-plus children proves far more unique than any normal estate planning strategy.
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The Telegram CEO Who Wouldn’t Break
According to sources, Durov has been defying authority for years. In 2013, he met with a high-ranking Russian official. The official insisted social networks should be government tools, giving Durov two options: comply or sell his shares and leave the country. Within two months, he sold his VKontakte shares and fled Russia. He hasn’t returned to Moscow in over 10 years.
That same defiance forged Telegram into today’s encrypted powerhouse, but it also landed him in French custody last August on charges including complicity in drug trafficking and money laundering. Four days of ruthless interrogation followed in a 7-square-meter room, sleeping on a concrete bed with a mattress no thicker than a yoga mat under harsh fluorescent lights.
The legal restrictions now prevent him from seeing his elderly parents, who have serious health problems and statistically only have a few years left. He missed his newborn son’s birth in Dubai, and his teenage son broke his arm at boarding school with no parent there for support. This nightmare forced him to confront something even more personal.
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An Unconventional Family Tree
His recent legal troubles forced him to confront an extraordinary family situation that would make most people’s heads spin. Durov has fathered over 100 children, but most aren’t from romantic relationships. Fifteen years ago, he began donating sperm to help a friend conceive. What started as a single act of kindness spiraled when the clinic later informed him they had created more than 100 babies across 12 countries using his semen.
He also has six children through traditional relationships with three different partners, including a newborn son in Dubai who still lacks a passport because Durov couldn’t attend the birth due to his restrictions.
Unlike many wealthy men who run away from such responsibilities, Pavel Durov embraces them entirely. “They are all my children,” he stated in a recent interview, emphasizing they would all receive equal inheritance rights.
His childhood shaped this perspective. While Durov built an empire on defying governments, his parenting philosophy stems from growing up poor in post-Soviet Russia, where he learned that wealth disappears overnight. His children need to forge their path, not rely on a trust fund.
The Billionaire Monk
The Telegram CEO lives as though he’s training for warfare. Every dawn he does 300 push-ups, then 300 squats without breaks. Even during those brutal interrogation days, his discipline has never cracked. His body is a temple that refuses booze, caffeine, nicotine, and sugar. He swims in cold water, sometimes in Finland or Lake Geneva mid-winter.
“Everything that hooks you stays banned,” he explained, and that philosophy extends beyond his diet. He doesn’t own a house, yacht, or private jet. Luxury hotels work perfectly when constantly dodging government surveillance. The messaging app emperor barely touches phones, managing his empire from an iPad like a minimalist tech monk. He wore the same pairs of shoes for four years until friends bought him new ones for his 40th birthday.
“Attention is our scarcest resource,” he said, calling notifications “digital parasites.” He calls this approach “digital asceticism.”
The platform pays him absolutely nothing. His Bitcoin investment from 2013 funds everything else and that timing aged wonderfully. The CEO billionaire spent almost all of $200 million selling VKontakte shares to build his messaging empire, Telegram. The discipline that built his fortune might be exactly what saves him from French prosecutors, but it’s also shaping how he thinks about legacy.
The 30-Year Inheritance Plan
The wealth transfer blueprint would make spoiled trust fund babies panic. Those heirs face a thirty-year waiting period before touching their inheritance.
Why the delay? “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.” He wrote his will recently because “defending freedoms earns you many enemies, including within powerful states.”
Controlling 100% of the app’s equity gives him the luxury to think beyond quarterly earnings, with no venture capitalist vultures circling for quick exits. If anything happens to him, a non-profit foundation inherits everything so the platform survives and governments can’t pressure his children for encryption backdoors.
His estimated $15-20 billion fortune remains purely theoretical since he refuses to sell Telegram. The children will inherit something far more valuable than money. His rebellion against the surveillance state, packaged as DNA. But will they ever see that legacy? That depends on what happens next in Paris.
What Global Internet Freedom Hangs in the Balance
July’s court date looms, and until then he remains under travel restrictions in France while his worldwide family grows up without him. Pavel Durov faces charges including complicity in drug trafficking and money laundering. “Nothing has ever been proven showing that I am, even for a second, guilty of anything,” he insists, claiming he’s being punished before trial.
This case exceeds one entrepreneur. If France can prosecute the architect of the world’s most encrypted messaging system, what stops Beijing or Washington from following suit? The precedent could reshape internet freedom globally.
Over a hundred children will inherit the aftermath of this legal battle. Will they receive billions of stories about their father’s principled stand? The man who connected a billion strangers across continents remains separated from the people he treasures most.
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