Written by Lisa Murimi
Pavel Durov, the enigmatic founder of encrypted messaging platform Telegram, has revealed that his estimated $13.9 billion fortune will be inherited by more than 100 children he claims to have fathered.
In an interview with French political magazine Le Point, Durov, 40, said he has six children with three women but has also fathered over 100 others through sperm donations to fertility clinics. “They are all my children and will all have the same rights! I don’t want them to tear each other apart after my death,” he declared.
Despite his massive fortune, Durov said his children would not have access to the inheritance for the next 30 years. “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 explained.
Durov, a Russian-born tech entrepreneur living in self-imposed exile, said he decided to write a will because of the risks associated with his work. “Defending freedoms earns you many enemies, including within powerful states,” he noted.
Telegram, known for its commitment to user privacy and end-to-end encryption, now boasts over one billion monthly active users. But Durov’s leadership has come under legal scrutiny in France, where he was arrested last year over allegations the platform failed to curb criminal activity.
French authorities accused him of not cooperating sufficiently in efforts to tackle drug trafficking, child exploitation content, and online fraud on the app. Durov has strongly denied the charges, calling them “totally absurd.”
“Just because criminals use our messaging service among many others doesn’t make those who run it criminals,” he said, defending Telegram’s record on content moderation.
Despite the controversies, Durov remains defiant and says his mission to protect digital privacy remains unchanged.
