Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy is no stranger to voicing controversial opinions—but no amount of shocking comments could have prepared his fans for the entrepreneur’s recent admission about his unique financial arrangement with his ex-wife.
The 47-year-old revealed during a recent interview with online host Sage Steele that his former spouse, Renee, still shares a bank account with him and has full access to his estimated $150 million fortune, seven years after they split.
Portnoy explained that his decision to allow his ex-partner, whom he has never officially divorced, full freedom with his fortune was born out of a desire to thank her for the support she showed him during the early days of Barstool Sports.
The company, which was founded in 2003 as a sports blog, was in its early stages when the couple first met. It has since grown into an international sports, lifestyle, and entertainment media brand, and was valued at $606 million in February 2023.
“We met when Barstool was nothing, so she rode the grind up with us,” Portnoy said of his ex-wife. “She was with me every step of the way. So in my mind, she’s entitled to enjoy the fruits of it.
“She currently has access to all my money. If she just wanted to be like, ‘I’m taking it’ and be gone, she could. But we’ve had that joint bank account forever. I trust her implicitly. She has full access for a long time.”
The Barstool Sports founder went on to explain that, while the two are legally separated, a divorce has never been finalized. Their one attempt to secure a divorce did not pan out how they had planned, he added.
“We’re still technically married right now. … We tried to get a divorce in Massachusetts, denied,” he noted. Their “fluid” financial arrangement was not regimented enough for…