Wife changes mind and banks $1.2 billion cheque from ex-husband

It seems a $1.2 billion cheque was just too tempting for Harold Hamm's ex-wife, with reports Sue Ann Arnall has banked his hand-written cheque after all.

Earlier this week the oil billionaire offered to settle his bitter divorce battle with Ms Arnall by having a personal cheque delivered to her lawyers, which she refused.

However CNBC is today reporting that she has changed her mind.

"We have been advised by Morgan Stanley that Ms Arnall deposited the check this afternoon," Mr Hamm's lawyer Michael Burrage told the media outlet.

It said Ms Arnall's legal team did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Continental Resources boss wrote the cheque on January 5 last year from his personal trust account with US banking group Morgan Stanley.

The $1.2 billion amount was the full cash value of what he owed her in line with the couple's November ruling by an Oklahoma County judge.

The cheque comes a week after Mr Hamm appealed the court ruling, claiming the billion-dollar figure was too much.

In early November 2014, Mr Hamm was ordered to pay $368 million to his ex-wife by the end of the year to settle their divorce battle spanning more than two years.

He was also ordered to pay instalments of around $8.1 million each month starting this month. She was also awarded the couple's marital home in Oklahoma and their ranch in California.

She has since filed her own appeal against the settlement. Ms Arnall and Mr Hamm were married in 1988.