How Much Money Did Jeff Bezos' Ex Wife Get In Their Divorce?

It was love at first laugh for Mackenzie Scott and Jeff Bezos. As she recalled to Vogue in 2013, Scott met her future husband when he interviewed her for a position at a hedge fund company. After getting the job, Scott grew to adore him as she heard the Amazon founder's famous laugh throughout the workday. Soon, Scott took matters into her own hands and asked Bezos to grab a bite with her. The businessman popped the question after about three months of courtship, and they tied the knot shortly thereafter, in September 1993. In the following decade, the happy couple welcomed four children, including their daughter, whom they adopted from China. Then, in January 2019, Bezos took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to announce that they were splitting up after 25 years of marriage. 

At the time, TMZ reported that the power couple had to come to an agreement on the division of billions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of acres of property, and the custody of their kids. To make matters significantly more complicated, they didn't have a prenup. However, the divorce turned out to be simpler than expected, as Scott confirmed on X in April that they had reached an agreement. According to Forbes, she walked away with a 4% stake in Amazon. While that may seem inconsequential, CNET clarified that it was 25% of Bezos' share in the company, bringing Scott's net worth up to an astounding $35 billion. 

Mackenzie Scott evidently had a lot of faith in her ex-husband following their split. In her X post announcing the finalization of their divorce, she penned, "Happy to be giving him all of my interests in the Washington Post and Blue Origin, and 75% of our Amazon stock plus voting control of my shares to support his continued contributions with the teams of these incredible companies." In an exclusive chat with The List, Holly Davis, a nationally-recognized family law trial attorney, professed that Scott's decision to give up voting rights over her stock worked in her favor in more ways than one. To start, Davis posited, "Mackenzie is signaling that she trusts Jeff to continue to be as successful as he has been in the company he founded and grew to enormous heights." 

The move also saves Scott from the mental strain of making important business decisions, leaving her to relax and simply reap the benefits. Davis also asserted that the philanthropist may have added faith in Bezos because he's a majority stakeholder in the company, so he would naturally protect his best interests with every crucial decision. The expert pointed out that Scott and Bezos had prioritized Amazon's growth with their divorce settlement too. According to Davis, if the exes had agreed on equal voting rights, it "could [have] create[d] stalemates or disagreements which could hurt the overall value of the company in the future." Ultimately, she believed it was a win-win situation for Scott. 

About a month after Jeff Bezos and Mackenzie Scott confirmed that their divorce had been finalized, she wrote a post for Bill and Melinda Gates, and Warren Buffet's non-profit, The Giving Pledge, to share the joys of philanthropy. Scott concluded the article by acknowledging that she had acquired "a disproportionate amount of money to share." However, she fully intended to use her wealth to make the world a better place and promised that she wouldn't stop "until the safe is empty." And it's safe to say that she meant those words quite literally.

According to a November 2022 Forbes report, Scott contributed $14.4 billion towards charitable endeavors in the three years following her divorce. In Scott's Medium post from that same month, she revealed that she had given away nearly $2 billion of the large sum in just seven months "to 343 organizations supporting the voices and opportunities of people from underserved communities." According to a January 2022 Forbes YouTube video, Scott's donations in just two years had already surpassed her ex-husband's lifetime philanthropic efforts. 

She didn't stop there either, as Fortune estimated that the businesswoman had given away over $17.3 billion to more than 2,000 different charitable institutions as of April 2024. While she is undoubtedly accomplishing her philanthropic goals, Scott's personal life suffered another setback in 2022 as she split up with her second husband, Dan Jewett, after two years of marriage. Meanwhile, Bezos struck up a romance with Lauren Sanchez after her stunning transformation and she has given us plenty of looks we can't stop talking about ever since.