The
Russian billionaire, 48, who is estimated to be worth £6.3billion, met
33-year-old art collector Dasha Zhukova in 2005 - and she has always
been referred to as his girlfriend.
But
now, the Moscow-born editor-in-chief of art and fashion magazine
Garage has confirmed in a magazine interview that they married 'a few
years' after meeting, in a secret ceremony.
The Wall Street Journal Magazine
article by journalist Tony Perrottet made a reference to the couple who
‘met in 2005 and were married a few years later; they have two
children’.
The
simple mention in the middle of the article is understood to have been
approved by Miss Zhukova, but she was unwilling to say anything about
their marriage, reported the Daily Mirror.
Miss Zhukova - who met Mr Abramovich at a New Year's Eve party hosted by her father - grew up in California.
Her
father is a prominent businessman and oil magnate and her mother was a
scientist. Her parents split when she was three and she and her mother
moved to the US when she was ten.
She
went to a privileged Jewish day school in California and graduated from
the University of California, Santa Barbara before returning to Moscow
and later moving to London.
She
and Mr Abramovich have two children - Aaron Alexander, born in December
2009 and Leah Lou, born in April 2013. Mr Abramovich has five other
children from a previous relationship.
 |
| Marat Safin and Dasha Zhukova |
Miss Zhukova
was previously with Marat Safin, the retired former Tennis World
Champion Number 1, but the couple split in 2005. Mr Abramovich meanwhile
has been married twice previously.
His
first wife was Olga Yurevna Lysova, whom he divorced three years after
marrying in 1988. His second wife was air stewardess Irina
Vyacheslavovna Malandina - with whom he had five children.
 |
| Abramovich and Irina |
She married
Mr Abramovich in 1991 but they divorced 16 years later in 2007 - in a
settlement said to be in the region of £150million. It is thought Irina
was left with a lump sum as well as four homes.
London-based
Mr Abramovich is now said to own dozens of properties including nine
flats in Kensington, which he plans to turn into a 30,000 sq ft house,
as well as a mansion in Kensington Palace Gardens - which he reportedly
bought for £90million - and a home in Chelsea.
He also owns two houses in
the Caribbean, a ranch in Colorado, a house just outside Moscow, and
the £250million New Holland island off St Petersburg.
He also owns
two planes – a Boeing 767 and 737 – three helicopters, a customised
Ferrari, two Maybach limousines, a Porsche Carrera, a Rolls-Royce
Corniche and a VW Golf, as well as at least three supersize yachts.
Miss Zhukova hit the headlines in January 2014 when she apologised after being accused of racism by posing in a chair that resembled a bound and semi-naked black woman.
The
photograph that showed her sitting in the chair designed by Norwegian
artist Bjarne Melgaard was published 'completely out of context', she
said at the time, adding: 'I utterly abhor racism.’
