I’ll give you $50m and throw in security for your elderly mom, just leave me alone! What billionaire offered angry ex after dumping her for society maven, according to deliciously petty court filings

By JOE HUTCHISON, US SENIOR NEWS REPORTER

Published: 19:29 EST, 13 November 2026 | Updated: 19:40 EST, 13 November 2026

An oil magnate offered his ex-girlfriend $50 million and a bodyguard for her elderly mother – on the condition she got out of his life once and for all, legal filings said.

Sid Bass, 84, is attempting to wash his hands of Oona Sperr, 64, after dumping her over a breakfast of non-dairy yoghurt at his Colorado ranch in September 2024.

Bass, who’s worth at least $4.4 billion, and his third wife Althea Irene Viaford Kress, 68, were both sued by Sperr.

She alleges that Bass should grant her the privileges a wife would have received had they divorced and wants $400 million. He denies her allegations and the claims made against him.

New details of Bass’s alleged initial offer to Sperr were stated in the latest court filing, which was obtained by the Daily Mail.

According to the document, Bass offered $5 million-a-year for 10 years after their split.

That proposal, which Sperr rejected, also offered to pay for expenses relating to the care and support of Sperr’s mother Portia, according to the document.

It said: ‘[Portia] will be provided with security services (door access, alarms, monitoring and a 24/7 staffed security post) for the remainder of her life.’

Bass made the offer on the condition that Sperr sign a non-disclosure agreement, the document said.

She refused to do so. The couple are now in settlement talks, according to the latest legal filing, although the potential terms of that settlement remain private.

Sperr and Bass pictured together in London in June 2023. Bass, an oil billionaire, dated Sperr for 10 years. She is now suing claiming she was brutally dumped for another woman and that financial promises Bass allegedly made were not kept

Bass is pictured with wife Althea Irene Viafora Kress at a MoMA event in New York in June 2026. Sperr has accused Kress in a civil complaint of maneuvering her way into Bass’s affections, with the couple marrying in August 2025

Kress was also named a defendant in Sperr’s suit.

Last month, Kress filed a response to the suit that will serve as a fresh reminder to Sperr, who won the battle for Bass’s affections.

Kress asked to be known by her married name – Althea Bass – in any future filings.

She further asked for all claims against her to be dismissed, although Judge Ronnie Abrams has yet to hear Kress’s arguments.

In a joint letter alongside Sperr’s lawyers, representatives for Bass said that he disputed her ‘characterization’ of their prior discussions concerning settlements.

They also said that the suit should be dismissed due to supposed ‘fatal deficiencies’ and called it ‘frivolous’.

‘Plaintiff falsely attacks Mr. and Mrs. Bass’s good character, misrepresents Mr. Bass’s health, omits Mrs. Bass’s decades of independent accomplishments, ignore Defendants’ forty-year friendship, and her claims fail as a matter of law’, they claimed.

Sperr claimed in her lawsuit that she had questioned Bass over his alleged infidelity following their discussion that morning in 2024.

That was due to his ‘well-known history of cheating on his previous wives’, she claimed in her suit. Bass was married to first wife Anne Hendricks from 1965 to 1988 and second wife Mercedes Kellogg from 1988 to 2011.

According to Sperr, Bass denied having cheated but she claimed in her suit that she later heard him on the phone to Kress referring to her as ‘sweetheart.’

Kress allegedly ordered Bass never to speak to Sperr again, ordered him to gut their many homes of her possessions – and even warned him not to drive her to the airport to say their final goodbye, Sperr’s lawsuit claims.

Bass was a heavy drinker who had suffered three mini-strokes and who had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease by the time he dumped Sperr, she also alleged in her legal filing.

Bass is seen in 2017. He is currently in settlement talks with his ex-girlfriend after she sued him

Bass and Sperr seen in Nebraska in 2017 in a photo filed as part of her lawsuit. According to Sperr, Bass denied having cheated but she claimed in her suit that she later heard him on the phone to Kress referring to her as ‘sweetheart’

She further accused Kress of manipulating Bass and taking advantage of his alleged cognitive decline to begin a relationship with him and shove Sperr out, the filing claims.

That alleged decline was mentioned in court papers filed late last month, in which lawyers for Sperr claimed Bass was suffering from strokes, neurological issues and memory loss.

Bass and Kress’s relationship blossomed and they wed on Bass’s private Texas island in August 2025. The couple were later photographed smiling at a MoMA event in New York in June 2026.

Sperr said she was only informed of the nuptials via a six line email from Bass two weeks later, which she claims to have reproduced in full in her lawsuit.

It said: ‘Althea and I were married on Saturday, August 9th at San Jose Island. Hyatt, Samantha and grandsons, plus Lee and Ramon attended.

‘Althea’s seven closest friends attended’, the email continued before blurring out three people named as Bass’s best men and ended: ‘Althea will change her name to Viafora-Bass.’

According to Sperr, the email was not composed or sent by her ex-partner but Kress who has ‘taken over Sid’s life, including his electronic communications’, her suit said.

Sperr said Bass sent her this email announcing his wedding to Kress, although she speculated in her lawsuit whether it had actually been written by Kress herself

Sperr shared a photo of Bass’s private jet in one of his family’s hangars in her legal filing

The email was the final nail in the coffin of what Sperr described in her suit as being a ‘loving’ and ‘committed’ decade-long relationship.

Sperr described in her suit how they first met in the summer of 1995 in Rome while Bass was married to his second wife, socialite Mercedes Tavacoli Kellogg Bass.

Bass and Mercedes divorced in 2011 with Mercedes being handed an undisclosed lump sum as well as annual allowances, a Texas estate and an apartment on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, the suit said.

Sperr’s suit detailed how Bass was infamously caught cheating on first wife Anne Hendricks Bass with Mercedes in Paris in 1986, with the ensuing divorce one of the high society scandals of that decade.

Anne, the mother to two of his children, was given between $200 million and $500 million in the wake of the split, Sperr said in her suit – equivalent to up to $1.4 billion in 2026.

After what Sperr described as a ‘chance encounter’ with Bass following his divorce from Mercedes, the two started dating.

In the ensuing years, Sperr described her life as living in ‘Bass Land,’ flying on a $55 million Gulfstream jet owned by Bass and living in luxury homes in Colorado, Texas and Manhattan which they decked out in original work by Van Gogh, Monet, Matisse, Picasso, Rothko and Warhol, the suit said.

Sperr shared a photo of herself with what she called the couple’s Van Gogh in her lawsuit.

The two mainly resided inside a $26 million double-fronted townhouse in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, according to the suit.

Bass and Sperr are seen here together in Venice in 2015

Sperr also shared a photo of an enormous diamond ring she says Bass gave her in front of a Vincent Van Gogh painting that sat in their bedroom

Bass and second wife Mercedes in 2007. Sperr claims in her lawsuit that Bass grew tired of Mercedes’s high-society socializing

A multi-million dollar house just for guests was bought nearby, with Sperr keeping herself busy maintaining her husband’s property empire and managing his many staff, according to her lawsuit.

Bass’s Pagosa Springs estate in Colorado, where he dumped Sperr, stretched to seven properties spread out across a ridgeline with a 7,000 acre ranch, the suit said.

There was also a huge loft in Fort Worth, Texas, comprised of three units combined.

When not living in one of their many mansions, Bass and Sperr would use the private jet to travel to Santa Fe and Paris, according to Sperr’s suit.

She conceded it was a rapid change in circumstances from her previous life living in a New York City apartment, but Sperr insists she was only attracted to Bass because of his personality.

She described how he made ‘tangible gestures’ to demonstrate his ‘deep and lasting commitment to Oona’ which included a 25.6 carat diamond ring worth $2.1 million, the suit said.

On top of the diamond, an image of which Sperr shared in the suit, he also gave her a 20-carat emerald worth $1 million, the suit said.

Besides material goods, the suit said that Sperr was appointed power of attorney over his affairs and his health care proxy.

Sperr is now seeking the sum due to having ‘relied on Sid’s promises to her detriment and suffered an unconscionable injury.’

The suit also frequently mentions Kress as having intentionally interfered in their relationship and caused the alleged damages.