As A basketball superstar, Michael Jordan was always in a league of his own. Now he is setting a record with his divorce as he prepares to pay his former wife an unprecedented settlement of more than $168m (£80m).

Last December, when Jordan, 44, and his wife Juanita, 48, split up, the athlete balked at signing the settlement. Insiders claim that negotiations have added £20m to the final deal.

The final severance package for Juanita Jordan, which includes the couple’s seven-acre estate in Chicago and custody of their three children, is expected to be agreed before the first anniversary of their last row – which was said to be about money.

The settlement eclipses the most expensive celebrity divorce on public record, in which Neil Diamond paid his ex-wife Marcia Murphey £75m. After licking his wounds, the singer, who had married the television production assistant before he became famous, won plaudits for his chivalrous verdict. “She’s worth every penny,” he said.

It makes other high-profile divorces, such as Steven Spielberg’s £50m separation from his first wife, the actress Amy Irving, and Sir Mick Jagger’s £12m farewell to Jerry Hall, seem like bargains. Sir Paul McCartney’s pending settlement with Heather Mills has been mooted at £50m.

Legal sources close to the 6ft 5in Jordan said that after 17 years of marriage he wants to get on with his life and is willing to pay a premium for an early end to his matrimonial woes. He was already a wealthy basketball star with the Chicago Bulls when the couple met on a blind date in 1984.

He proposed a few months later but Juanita initially turned him down. A year after their marriage in Las Vegas, he signed a prenuptial agreement that entitled her to half his fortune, but she has claimed only a third.

During the marriage Jordan’s warm personality and dazzling basketball skills lifted the game to new heights of popularity. He also pioneered lucrative sponsorships deals with McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and Nike, which created the bestselling range of Air Jordan shoes.

The sports icon has recently been photographed with a series of young women while Juanita is involved with a banker 20 years younger than herself.

TOP FIVE CELEBRITY DIVORCES

1 Michael and Jaunita Jordan – £80m

2 Neil Diamond and Marcia Murphey – £75m

3 Steven Spielberg and Amy Irving – £50m

4 Harrison Ford and Melissa Mathison – £42m

5 Kevin Costner and Cindy Silva – £40m

More costly celebrity divorces

Times Recommends

• Tehran cannot live up to its rhetoric
• The new unicycle that will ‘change the world’
• We cannot wish away Iran’s bomb