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Saturday, Jul 19, 2025

Telegram Founder: I Will Leave My Fortune to Over 100 of My Children

Pavel Durov, whose wealth is estimated at around $14 billion, says he is the legal father of six children from three partners, and the rest were born through sperm donations over the past 15 years: “They are all my children and they will have the same rights! I don’t want them fighting each other after my death.”

Telegram messaging app founder Pavel Durov said he intends to leave his $13.9 billion fortune to more than 100 of his children, most of whom were born via sperm donation. “They are all my children and they will have the same rights! I don’t want them fighting each other after my death,” Durov told the French magazine Le Point.

Durov said he is the official father of six children he had with three partners, but that the clinic where he began donating sperm more than 15 years ago — originally to help a friend — informed him that over 100 children have been born from his sperm in more than 12 countries. In the interview, he also denied any connection to criminal acts attributed to him in France.

The Russian tech tycoon, who lives in exile, also told the magazine that his children will not have access to their inheritance for 30 years. “I want them to live like normal people, to build their lives on their own, to learn to rely on themselves, to be creative, and not to depend on a bank account.”

The 40-year-old Durov has already prepared a will, as he says his work involves risks. “Defending freedom can make a person enemies — including in very powerful countries,” he said.

Telegram, the app created by Durov, now has over one billion monthly active users. 

In the interview, Durov also addressed the charges against him in France, where he was arrested last year due to his refusal to make changes to the app, which — according to the French government — were aimed at preventing its use for purposes such as drug and human trafficking, distribution of pedophilic content, and more. 

However, France did not provide any guarantees that the surveillance capabilities it demanded to be included in the app would not be used to spy on citizens who are not human traffickers, pedophiles, or drug dealers — but instead human rights activists, journalists, political opposition members, and a variety of similar targets that democratic countries often spy on through the backdoors granted to them by companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook.

"The fact that criminals exploit the app does not mean that the person who runs it is a criminal," he said.

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