Tilman Fertitta opens up about his divorce, money and yachts in Forbes cover story
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Tilman Fertitta opens up about his divorce, money and yachts in Forbes cover story

By , Staff writerUpdated
Tilman Fertitta talked money, yachts and wives in a Forbes cover story.

Tilman Fertitta talked money, yachts and wives in a Forbes cover story.

Jon Shapley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

Houston billionaire Tilman Fertitta and longtime wife Paige have divorced, Forbes reported in its cover story featuring Fertitta among the nation’s wealthiest people.

The story, published Monday, said the 2017 split was amicable — Paige and their four children recently spent a week on Fertitta’s new 252-foot yacht — and Fertitta has been remarried for two years to Lauren Ware, formerly a litigation counsel for Landry’s.

Fertitta and his representatives did not dispute the report’s accuracy.

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Feritta, hospitality mogul and owner of the Houston Rockets, ranked 158 on Forbes’ 400-person list with a net worth of $6.3 billion. Fertitta moved up in the ranking after boosting his net worth more than 50 percent. Last year, Fertitta ranked No. 181 with $4.1 billion.

He was one of five from the list to be featured with Forbes cover stories.

The story describes Fertitta as “a sharp financial engineer with a history of cutting the public into and out of his ventures and taking on and offloading debt at opportune moments.” It notes a pending merger slated to take his restaurant and casino empire public will increase his net worth to $8 billion.

Fertitta wants a property on the Las Vegas Strip and is already contemplating his next yacht, Forbes reported.

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amanda.drane@chron.com

Twitter.com/amandadrane

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Amanda Drane

Reporter

Amanda Drane is an energy reporter for the Houston Chronicle. She can be reached at amanda.drane@houstonchronicle.com.

Amanda covers the Texas energy industry and the people affected by it, with a particular focus on oil, gas, chemicals and the transition to cleaner energy. Before joining the paper’s business desk in May 2020 she worked as a City Hall reporter in Massachusetts, where she won regional awards for covering issues such as police accountability and the exploitation of undocumented restaurant workers.