A Glimpse Inside The Marriage Of The Richest Couples In History (4 of 5)

John and Laura Rockefeller

There are only handfuls of names that are engraved on the face of time; the name Rockefeller is one. The name is synonymous with riches, and it’s well known around the globe on account of New York City’s Rockefeller Center. By the time of his death in 1937, the self-made industrialist, John D. Rockefeller, has ended up as the world’s richest man and as the leader of the Standard Oil company. He is recognized as a generous philanthropist who gave more than $530 million.

He wedded his high school companion-Laura Celestia “Cettie” Spelman in 1864. Cettie has a sharp personality for business and uses that to empower her husband business endeavor. No doubt, she was positive on her husband and all things considered, her solid social conscience did help motivate John’s generosity. John himself acknowledged her for his prosperity. “her judgment was always better than mine,” the business big shot once said of his wife, “Without her keen advice, I would be a poor man.”

Sadly, Cettie passed away over 20 years before her husband. He never remarried and at his request, John was buried next to Cettie when he died.

John Jacob Astor IV and Madeleine Astor

You may know him for his scandalous marriage to an 18-year old Madeleine Talmage Force in September 1911 who he was 30 years older than, soon after his divorce from his first spouse, Ava Lowle Willing. John was born with a silver spoon; he went to Harvard and was influential in building the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. To get away from the chatter that erupted from the union, the Astors embarked on wedding trip around Europe and North Africa, in the hope that the outrage would have lessened when they return.

Tragically, it was the sinking of the Titanic—the infamous luxury liner that hit an ice and sank on its first journey which short-lived their marriage. Fortunately for Madeleine, she survived, but her husband did not. Soon after, the pregnant Madeleine gave birth to her son who was named-John Jacob Astor VI (as four months earlier, another relative had beaten him to John Jacob Astor V). After Four years, Madeleine relinquishes all her claim to multi-million dollar Astor fortune, and a $5 million trust fund left for her after she remarried.