Someone might pay millions of dollars to avoid making a spectacle that refocuses their efforts on something they are not interested in dealing with.
"You wouldn't want your wife and business partners to find out that you have a girlfriend, would you?"
If she was under the age of consent, then he either didn't sleep with her and thus had no reason to pay any money or he did and he broke the law. Right? At that point, he wouldn't have only been paying to hide it from his wife and Sequoia but also the government and hence wouldn't be innocent.
You're saying he did something illegal. OK.
As someone who frequents HN, you are no doubt aware that people "settle" without going to trial many times. Perhaps he did the math and figured it wasn't worth his time.
See this for what it is: a divorce, without a legal marriage. She's pissed, he's just trying to move on.