Who is sol kerzner

He focused then on the Caribbean and the United States. His success after his tainted reputation was hard-won but he prevailed nonetheless. The South African tycoon might have been a success with finances, but he was so much with his marital life as he was married a total of four times during his lifetime.

The first woman he got married to was Maureen Adler Kerzner. Unfortunately, the union ended in divorce. His next marriage was to Shirley Bestbier in The two remained together until when Shirly ended her life shortly after the birth of their second child together.

Although reasons for the suicide have not been revealed, it was claimed that Sol never got over her until his death. The marriage only lasted 5 years before ending in Sol Kerzner married a fourth and final time to glamorous American-born socialite Heather Murphy in Incidentally, it was not the first marriage for both of them as Heather was once married to an Englishman, Charlie Murphy, and had two kids before the union ended.

Heather and Sol would be together for 11 years even with an age difference of 34 between them. The irony was that shortly after she turned 40, Sol started making jokes that he had never gone out with a woman in her 40s and not long afterward, the American born filed for divorce as a result of what she described as unreasonable behavior. Heather made millions from the divorce, even though she was hard hit.

Unfortunately, she would go on to experience a sharp fall in her fortune following an investment that went sour. From all his marriages, Kerzner had 5 kids. In , tragedy struck when Sol lost his first son, Butch Kerzner in a helicopter crash. But also joined the family business and lost his life after he went to survey a site for a new resort in the Dominican Republic. He was 42 at the time of his death. Sol Kerzner and his ex-wife Heather Image Source. Without any doubt, Sol Kerzner was one of the richest men in South Africa.

He made his fortune through his many investments in the hotel business. He has built businesses from the start and watched them bloom into things others would never have expected.

He has had ambitious projects in different parts of the world including South Africa where he built the Sun City and the United States where he had the Mohegan Sun. People 21 Mar By Sun International.

The balcony of the King's Suite at The Palace is the best vantage point to catch a glimpse of the vision that Sol Kerzner had when he flew over the Pilanesberg and saw the stretch of dormant volcanic land that would later become Sun City. At the time of that fortuitous helicopter trip in , Kerzner was slowly making moves in the hotel industry.

Sun City would be instrumental in arming him with the "template" he needed to bring his fantasy resorts and pleasure parks to life…. In , just seven years after opening his first hotel and dinner club in downtown Durban, he formed a partnership with South African Breweries to create the Southern Sun group of hotels and casinos.

Kerzner's determination to promote luxury travel was evident in the many five-star properties he developed during his tenure with Southern Sun. Due to the rigid apartheid gaming laws, he was forced to look to other African countries and in , he built Botswana's five-star Chobe Game Lodge — where Elizabeth Taylor and Sir Richard Burton spontaneously tied the knot on what was supposed to be a two-day visit to the luxury bush retreat.

Always one step ahead of the game, Kerzner's move proved to be lucrative and gave Southern Sun the financial boost it needed for his "breakout development".

Back in South Africa, negotiations with the tribal council of Bophuthatswana would turn in his favour and, once the gaming licence was in place, Sun City development began.

In , there was a massive buzz around Kerzner's "pleasure paradise in the Pilanesberg" and on its opening weekend, 15 people crammed through Sun City's gates to sample South Africa's richest resort.

It was a massive undertaking for a hotelier in those days, but the gamble paid off, catapulting Kerzner into the limelight and reinforcing his aspirations to inject some glamour into the South African hotel industry.

Sun City was not only an architectural feat, but the resort also symbolised Kerzner's obsession to push the boundaries and indulge his guests' wildest fantasies. For a "numbers man" , he had an incredible imagination and Sun City showed him just how far he could push the limits.

Although long hours and a "jet-setting lifestyle" triggered a near-fatal heart attack in , Kerzner was back at work two weeks later to begin plans on the three-star Aloe Ridge hotel, as well as on a new casino-resort on South Africa's majestic Wild Coast.

Plans were also finalised to build a 6 seater entertainment arena with the vision of bringing the world's biggest superstars to the Sun City stage. In those days, you could catch a bus from Joburg's Park Station to marvel at the megastars who were all part of Kerzner's masterplan to turn Sun City into the entertainment epicentre of South Africa.

To add to the experience, he bolstered Sun City's resort appeal with the addition of an hole golf course, designed by long-time friend and golfing legend Gary Player, two additional hotels the Cascades and the Cabanas , a man-made lake for watersports, and Africa's first mono-rail, the Skytrain, which still operates today.

The hotelier's fastidious attention to detail spilled into every part of Sun City's year development and, at a time when gambling and topless revue shows were banned in South Africa, Sun City's "glamorous sheen" captured the imagination of entertainment-hungry South Africans. As recorded in the scintillating commercial, Sun City encapsulated the hedonistic spirit of the '80s.

If Sun City was all about decadence and escapism, Kerzner made sure he filled the resort with the best experiences and events that money could buy! From the Gary Player-designed golfing greens and the heavyweight boxing bouts to Sun City Casino's Dream Machines, he wanted people to have a good time and created a playground where their wildest expectations were constantly exceeded.

Although Sun City was developed as part of the Southern Sun group in , it was the biggest asset in the portfolio of casinos and hotels that Kerzner would retain before leaving the company to launch Sun International in In , after successfully listing Sun International on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, he raised the capital to fund Sun City's first five-star hotel — the Rmillion Cascades.

In , Kerzner made his first major acquisition outside South Africa—Paradise Island Resort in the Bahamas, a 1,room resort and casino that had fallen into bankruptcy. Kerzner launched a major re-development and expansion program, turning the property into a 2,room resort and casino that also includes the world's largest man-made marine habitat, the largest casino entertainment center and other attractions, making it the one of the most successful resorts in the world.

On Paradise Island, the company also operates a room luxury hotel resort, the Ocean Club. This exclusive luxury hotel resort was expanded in to include new rooms and suites, a private residential community and an hole golf course. This was as a result of negotiating a unique agreement with the Mohegan Indian Nation.