Tech billionaire and founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, has revealed that he has fathered more than 100 children across 12 countries and plans to share his entire wealth with them.
Durov made this known during an interview with French magazine Le Point. He explained that many of the children were born through sperm donations he made 15 years ago to help a friend.
“The clinic where I started donating sperm 15 years ago told me that more than 100 babies had been conceived this way in 12 countries,” he said.
Aside from those children, Durov also has six children of his own with three different women. He said he considers all of them his children and will treat them equally.
“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,” the 40-year-old Russian businessman stated.
However, Durov added that none of the children would be allowed to access the money until 30 years from now. According to him, he wants them to live normal lives and not depend on his wealth.
“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.
He also said he had already written a will because he believes his job puts him at risk. “Defending freedoms earns you many enemies, including within powerful states,” he said.
Telegram, which Durov founded, is known for its strong privacy features and has over one billion active users every month.
During the interview, Durov also spoke about the criminal charges he faces in France. He was arrested last year for allegedly not doing enough to stop illegal activities on Telegram, including drug trafficking and child abuse content.
But he strongly denied the accusations, calling them “totally absurd.”
“Just because criminals use our messaging service among many others doesn’t make those who run it criminals,” he said.
Telegram has also denied claims that it does not do enough to moderate content on its platform.
