Who is Telegram owner Pavel Durov? Meet the social media mogul who’s worth £12billion but owns no home – and claims to have fathered over 100 children
Pavel Durov is a billionaire and social media mogul, but without the usual wealth he can easily afford.
The 39-year-old, whose fortune is estimated at £12billion, claims not to have any significant personal assets.
Despite living in the multi-millionaire’s playground of Dubai, he revealed in a rare television interview earlier this year that he did not own a house, land, yachts or private jets.
He told American broadcaster Tucker Carlson: “I don’t think this lifestyle suits me.” And he added: “My highest priority in life is my freedom.”
Durov says he is focusing all his energy on Telegram, the social media platform with 950 million users that he founded in 2013 with his “genius” brother Nikolai.
Durov was born in Russia and spent much of his youth in Italy. He later returned to his homeland when his father, a scholar of classical Roman literature, took up a new position at the University of St. Petersburg.
Pavel Durov (pictured) is a billionaire and a social media mogul without the usual wealth he could easily afford
Irina Bolgar, 44, (pictured, center), a Russian woman living in Switzerland, claimed he was the father of her daughter and two sons, born in 2013, 2016 and 2017
Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov delivers his keynote address during the second day of Mobile World Congress at the Fira Gran Via complex in Barcelona, Spain on February 23, 2016
Both brothers mastered computer code and programming from an early age, and when Durov graduated from university at 21, he founded VK, which has been called the ‘Facebook of Russia’.
It quickly grew to become the largest social media company in Russia and the former Soviet countries, but soon came into conflict with the authorities.
When he refused to provide data on Ukrainian protesters to Russian security services, he was effectively forced to close his business and move abroad in 2014.
Durov said that the lack of a secure form of communication in Russia gave him the idea for Telegram. His brother created Telegram’s encryption system and the rest is history.
The Russian entrepreneur says he gave up his attempts to establish himself in Berlin, London and San Francisco due to “bureaucratic obstacles” and eventually settled in Dubai.
He now holds dual French and Emirati citizenship and remains the sole owner of Telegram.
People walk past paper airplanes resembling the logo of messaging app Telegram, which were set up during a rally in support of freedom of expression following the arrest of Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov, near the French embassy in Moscow, Russia, August 25, 2024
Activist Vladislav Mazur takes part in a one-man picket to protest the arrest of Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of messaging app Telegram, near the French embassy in Moscow, Russia, August 25, 2024
Durov also seems to have an equally colorful private life.
He posed for photos to show off his muscular body, but despite his good looks and status, he is believed to be single.
Bizarrely, Durov recently claimed in a Telegram post that he is the father of over 100 children worldwide after becoming a sperm donor.
He is known to have a daughter and a son with his ex-partner Daria Bondarenko, who now lives in Barcelona.
And recently, 44-year-old Russian Irina Bolgar, who lives in Switzerland, claimed that he was the father of her daughter and two sons, born in 2013, 2016 and 2017. She insisted that they were “conceived and born naturally.”
