At the height of Milli Vanilli mania, back in 1990, Fab Morvan was one of the most recognizable pop stars on the planet. Alongside Rob Pilatus, he fronted an act whose album “Girl You Know It’s True” reached #1 on the Billboard 200, sold millions of copies, and produced three #1 singles plus another that peaked at #2. Milli Vanilli won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, dominated MTV, sold out concerts, and generated hundreds of millions of dollars in business around the world.
For a brief period, Morvan was living the full superstar experience: chart-topping records, international travel, television appearances, screaming fans, awards, and the appearance of enormous wealth.
Then it all came crashing down. We don’t need to rehash everything that happened. I’m sure you know the story. You also probably know that the pressure and shame sent Rob down a very dark path which eventually turned tragic in April 1998 when Rob died after mixing alcohol and prescription medication.
It wasn’t all bad news in 1998 for Milli Vanilli, though. On December 3, 1998, Fab married a woman named Kim Marlowe.
The marriage ended up lasting 26 years! Kim filed for divorce in January 2024, and the case is now winding its way through the court system. She has submitted a request for help with attorney fees and an audit of Fab’s finances. Pretty standard stuff. And actually, a celebrity marriage that lasted 26 years is very impressive, right? Well, this case has an extremely bizarre twist…
(Photo by Britta Pedersen/picture alliance via Getty Images)
The Filing
As we mentioned a moment ago, Fab and Kim married in December 1998, and she filed for divorce in January 2024. Well, as it turns out, they actually separated two years after marrying. As in, back in the year 2000. For some insane reason, they did not divorce! They lived completely separate (but still legally married) lives for a quarter century. And now she’s requesting to see Fab’s finances???
Specifically, Kim is asking Fab to contribute $50,000 toward her attorney fees and another $25,000 for a forensic accountant. Morvan says he does not have the income to pay the requested $75,000. And to prove it, he just literally put his money where his mouth is.
According to court documents obtained by TMZ, Morvan says he currently has just $3,845 in cash and bank accounts. He reported earning $1,846 per month in wages and salary, plus another $1,500 per month from what he described as an $18,000 annual bonus. That’s total reported monthly income of $3,346. Meanwhile, he listed $9,261 in monthly expenses. Simple subtraction produces a monthly shortfall of $5,915.
Morvan says his longtime partner, Tessa van der Steen, with whom he has four children, covers more than $5,000 of the household’s monthly expenses.
The Tough Financial Reality of Milli Vanilli
That’s where this story becomes much more interesting.
Milli Vanilli wasn’t some one-hit novelty act. For a brief stretch around 1989 and 1990, the group was absolutely enormous. “Girl You Know It’s True” reached #2 in the United States. “Baby Don’t Forget My Number,” “Girl I’m Gonna Miss You,” and “Blame It on the Rain” all reached #1. Their American album, also called “Girl You Know It’s True,” reached #1 on the Billboard 200, and contemporary reports eventually credited it with around 10 million copies sold. Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist.
But Morvan and Pilatus had essentially none of the ownership economics normally associated with stars generating that level of success. They did not sing the hit recordings. They did not write the songs. They did not own the masters. And therefore they did not build the kind of royalty stream that can make a hit recording artist wealthy for decades.
Instead, they were the faces of producer Frank Farian‘s project.
Morvan and Pilatus later described themselves as broke young performers when Farian recruited them. At their 1990 press conference following the scandal, they said their first payments were checks for just $4,000 each. Pilatus recalled that they had little money and saw Farian’s offer as their chance to escape poverty and become stars. Their attorney later characterized the contract they signed as providing a “substandard royalty” and accused Farian of withholding some payments to keep the pair under control.
How Much Did Rob And Fab Actually Make?
Farian, who died in January 2024 – coincidentally the same month Kim filed for divorce – vigorously disputed the idea that he had left Morvan and Pilatus penniless. Speaking to The Washington Post in late 1990, he claimed the pair had been paid 3 million deutsche marks, then about $2.1 million. “I made them rich,” Farian said, before adding a revealing punch line: “And Frank Farian got even richer.”
A Washington Post profile published in January 1992 subsequently reported that Morvan and Pilatus had earned approximately $4 million combined during their Milli Vanilli run.
Even if they split $4 million evenly, that’s around $2 million apiece before taxes, management fees, lawyers, travel, and whatever they spent while living like international pop stars. That’s obviously a lot of money. But it is worlds away from what people imagine when they hear “one of the biggest pop acts in the world.”
More importantly, it wasn’t accompanied by ownership.
When the checks stopped, there was no giant songwriting catalog quietly compounding in the background. No ownership stake in the masters. No enormous stream of performance royalties from “Blame It on the Rain” or “Girl I’m Gonna Miss You.” Decades later, Morvan has said he still does not receive royalties from the original Milli Vanilli recordings.
Meanwhile, Frank Farian Became Extremely Rich
The financial contrast is one of the most striking aspects of the Milli Vanilli story.
The excellent 2023 documentary “Milli Vanilli” takes that contrast to an extreme. At one point, the film claims the Milli Vanilli phenomenon generated $580 million, that approximately 46 million records were sold globally, and that at the time Frank Farian was worth “almost half a billion.” That number is difficult to substantiate.
Milli Vanilli was only one chapter of Farian’s money machine. Decades before Rob and Fab arrived, he created Boney M., one of the most successful European groups of the disco era. He later produced acts including La Bouche and No Mercy and accumulated valuable songwriting, publishing, and production interests.
In a 2007 interview with the German newspaper WELT, Farian basically confirmed that his fortune was in the neighborhood of $100 million.
When Farian died in January 2024, German newspaper Bild estimated his fortune, including real estate, at around €120 million. That’s the same as around $140 million USD. CelebrityNetWorth estimates that he was worth $200 million at the time of his death.
So while the documentary’s claim that Farian was once worth “almost half a billion” is difficult to verify, there is little doubt that the man behind Milli Vanilli ultimately accumulated a nine-figure fortune.
Rob Pilatus’ Story Became Much Darker
If Fab Morvan’s current financial disclosure is surprising, the final years of his Milli Vanilli partner Rob Pilatus provide an even more dramatic example of how little lasting financial security their short period of superstardom appears to have created.
Within roughly a year of the scandal, Pilatus was in serious personal trouble. In late 1991, he survived a suicide attempt and subsequently spent time in drug rehabilitation. When The Washington Post interviewed Rob and Fab in early 1992, they were living in separate rooms above a small recording studio in Reno while trying to mount a comeback.
Their new act, Rob & Fab, ultimately went nowhere commercially. Pilatus’ problems accelerated as the decade continued. In 1996, after a series of assaults and other incidents in Los Angeles, he was sentenced to jail and residential drug treatment.
Years later, Farian gave a remarkable account of just how far his former star had fallen. Farian said Pilatus called him from a Los Angeles jail while addicted to drugs and “completely at the end.” According to Farian, he put up $150,000, brought Pilatus back to Germany, and placed him in treatment. Farian was even considering another Milli Vanilli comeback in which Rob and Fab could finally receive vocal credit on new material.
It never happened. Pilatus died in a Frankfurt-area hotel in April 1998 after consuming alcohol and prescription medication. He was 32.
Girl You Know It’s Complicated
I have so many questions about this saga. Why did Fab and Kim remain legally married for more than 25 years while, according to Fab, living completely separate lives? Why is a marriage that apparently functionally ended around the year 2000 only now producing a fight over spousal support and financial records? And even with all his infamy, how can one of the most recognizable pop stars of 1990 have such modest finances today?
Blame it on the bills? Girl, you know it’s complicated.
