Lululemon founder Chip Wilson has filed for divorce from his wife of more than two decades, and because the couple never signed a prenuptial agreement, a Canadian court could end up dividing a fortune Bloomberg puts at $6.1 billion.
Wilson, 71, and Shannon “Summer” Wilson, 52, married in 2002 and filed divorce proceedings at the Supreme Court of British Columbia in April, though the case details remain sealed. Summer Wilson was one of Lululemon’s earliest employees and became the company’s founding lead designer before later co-founding the apparel label Kit and Ace with her stepson JJ Wilson in 2014.
Chip Wilson founded Lululemon in 1998 and still holds about 8.6% of the company, a stake worth close to $1 billion at current prices. Summer Wilson holds roughly 1% in her own right. Without a prenup governing how those holdings and the rest of the marital estate get split, both stakes are now part of whatever the British Columbia court decides, according to Bloomberg and Seeking Alpha.
Twenty years, no paperwork
A couple married that long building and running a company together without ever formalizing how it would unwind is unusual at this level of wealth, where prenups and trusts are standard practice specifically to keep a personal split from becoming a corporate event. Lululemon’s stock ownership structure means a contentious divorce settlement could put a meaningful chunk of company equity in play, depending on how a judge or settlement eventually divides it.
Wilson stepped down from Lululemon’s board in 2015 and has spent the years since as an outside critic of the company’s direction, while remaining one of its largest individual shareholders. Neither Wilson nor representatives for Summer Wilson have commented publicly beyond confirming the filing.
Sources: Bloomberg · Seeking Alpha
