Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich's girlfriend, model Dasha Zhukova, gave birth to a girl in New York on April 8th. Little Leah Lou will be an American citizen.
She may also be the most expensive baby delivery ever, if you add in the boat costs. But she's not exactly, as some have tongue-in-cheekily reported, an "anchor baby." At least not more than in the nautical sense.
For the past two months, Zhukova and Abramovich have been awaiting the birth of their daughter aboard the Russian steel tycoon's approximately $500 million, 533-foot yacht, Eclipse, which he docked in the Hudson River back in February. When it was time to deliver their child (Abramovich's 7th), 31-year-old Zhukova simply popped over to New York Presbyterian Hospital.
American citizenship: free. And it would have been no matter what. The Daily Mail reports that the baby's mother actually already had an American passport; Zhukova spent many of her growing-up years in Los Angeles, living with her mother, a UCLA microbiologist.
The cost for delivering little Leah Lou on American soil topped several hundred million, by our estimates. That tally includes the $250 million price tag for Eclipse, which Abramovich purchased in 2010, plus operating and docking fees. While we don't have an exact price tag for how much Abramovich has spent to sit on a boat in the Hudson, my colleague Luisa Kroll reported that Darwin Deason charters his own yacht for $400,000 a week, not including expenses like tipping, food, and fuel. Forbes contributor Tim Thomas, editor of Boat International, estimates that running costs for Abramovich's yacht are likely upwards of half a million per week, although those numbers are rough.
Update: This post has been updated with new information from Boat International
Let's say, roughly, that Abramovich was spending $500,000 a week. At eight weeks on that rate, that's still $4 million. Add to that a few million for getting to New York on the boat and the total, including that initial boat purchase price, is at several hundred million. (Abramovich's yacht has been improved since he purchased it, and although it has been widely reported at a value of $1.5 billion, Thomas says that value is actually quite a bit too high. He places the boat value in the neighborhood of $450 million to $500 million.)
The baby would have been a U.S. citizen even if its mother wasn't, and even if the mom delivered the baby on the boat. "Most likely, he would be a citizen born on the Hudson River because it's in the United States," says Cheryl David, a New York immigration attorney.
This is Zhukova and Abramovich's second child together. Their first, 3-year-old Aaron, was reportedly born in Los Angeles.
