To achieve great success, you often have to think outside the box. And that's something that these controversial millionaires and billionaires have had no trouble in applying, both to business and to their eccentric personal lives. From lavish pet weddings to a real-life Jurassic Park or even getting permanently banned from Twitter, click or scroll through the strangest, most controversial super-rich people from modern history.
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There's no doubt that Howard Hughes was one of the most successful businessmen of his time, if not ever. He made his money as a film producer during the 1920s and 30s, producing films such as Scarface (1932), and then as a business magnate following the creation of his own aircraft company. He reached an estimated net worth of $2 billion (£986m) by the time he died in 1976, which would be over $9 billion (£7.1bn) today.
While he enjoyed an extravagant lifestyle and was something of a playboy in his younger days, as he got older Hughes became reclusive and the symptoms of his obsessive compulsive disorder became more extreme. This included eating the exact same meal night after night, spending millions living out of hotels, and refusing to wear clothes due to his fear of germs. He also spent a total of four months holed up in a dark screening room, surviving on milk and chocolate bars and insisting his staff avoid making eye contact with him.
As the 7th Marquess of Bath, Alexander Thynn inherited a total fortune of over $189 million (£150m). He lived at the family home in Wiltshire, England, which also happens to be a safari park and leading tourist attraction. As with many Brits born into money, the Marquess of Bath was educated at Eton College and then Oxford University. But that's where he left tradition behind...
After visiting Kenya for a month, Pendrill became so enthralled by the lives of the Masai tribespeople that he decided he wanted to join them. Then aged 57, he sold his home and belongings, broke up with his girlfriend and said goodbye to his old life. After a ceremony in which he had to drink bull's blood and urine, Pendrill got his wish and was welcomed as an elder into a tribe.
In 2013 Palmer opened a park filled with robotic dinosaurs to the public. When low visitor numbers forced the resort – called Palmersaurus – to close two years later, he was said to be considering bringing real dinosaurs back to life. Despite being in talks with the scientists who cloned Dolly the sheep, the project seems to have lost all momentum. Let's hope his next venture – a functioning replica of the Titanic aka 'Titanic II' due to set sail in 2022 – is more successful.
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Ivanishvili's $38 million (£30m) home is like something out of a film set. In fact, his employees actually greet visitors with "Welcome to the James Bond house". The home, designed by artist duo Gilbert & George, includes a helipad, a glass tower with a circular swimming pool inside, and a huge rotating steel ball housing a café. A lover of exotic animals, the billionaire also has his own zoo, complete with penguins, zebras, and sharks at his grand estate by the coast.
Berggruen became known as the 'homeless billionaire' after selling his home in 2000 and living out of hotels for years. He also binned most of his belongings, carrying everything he owned in a large paper bag. A long-term bachelor, the billionaire decided to settle down in 2016 following the birth of his two children through egg donors and surrogates.
Michael J. Lindell is an American entrepreneur, who has been courting controversy in the last few months due to his support for Donald Trump. The pillow magnate, who started MyPillow in 2004 after struggling with insomnia, has previously suffered with drug addiction and almost lost his fledgling business because of it too. His wife left him and he lost his house, but he managed to quit drugs before MyPillow went under. In fact, after Lindell dedicated himself to the the pillow manufacturer, expanding its range of products to beds, linen and even pet beds, the Minnesota-based business started to thrive, and even racked up $280 million (£217m) in revenue in 2017.
However, Lindell's support of Donald Trump has now started to affect the business. Even though Trump lost the 2020 election, Lindell questioned the result and Dominion Voting Systems threatened to sue the entrepreneur over his claims the election was rigged. Lindell maintained his support of Trump despite the Capitol siege on 6 January, going as far to describe the event as "very peaceful". Lindell's comments and spreading of "misinformation" on Twitter have since led him to be permanently banned from the social media platform, and when he tried to keep tweeting from the MyPillow business account Twitter then took that account down too. His political views have even led retailers including Bed, Bath & Beyond, Kohl's and JC Penney to stop selling his MyPillow products.
Now the richest person in the world, with a current net worth of $190 billion (£138.9bn) according to Bloomberg, South Africa-born Elon Musk is as much known for his controversies as his success. From his personal life, where he married and divorced British actress Talulah Riley twice and has now named his seventh child (his first with Canadian singer Grimes (pictured)) the highly unusual X Æ A-12, to his professional achievements which include putting chips in pigs' brains, Musk is never far from the headlines.
Many of Musk's controversies play out on Twitter, and in 2018 Tesla was fined $20 million (£16.5m) and Musk lost his role as Tesla chairperson after the US Securities and Exchange Commission sued Musk for posting tweets claiming that he could buy out stockholders at $420 (£350) a share, despite not having secured the funding. On 6 March 2020 his tweets caused controversy again when he tweeted "the coronavirus panic is dumb" just five days before the World Health Organization declared coronavirus a pandemic. He later offered to buy ventilators for hospitals in New York and other COVID hotspots. However, this positive contribution was offset by his tweet on 11 May 2020 when Musk announced that he would be reopening his Tesla factory in Fremont, California in defiance of local public health orders. Musk's Twitter account drew more attention last summer when the billionaire tweeted "I am selling almost all physical possessions. Will own no house." This was followed by his comment that "My gf @Grimezsz is mad at me" and Musk has since sold one of his seven properties for a reported $29 million (£22.8m).
Now read: Billionaire boats to blow your mind – and your wallet
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