The Truth About Jeff Bezos' Divorce From Ex Mackenzie Scott

In 1992, Mackenzie Scott walked out of a D. E. Shaw office after scoring a job following her interview with the firm's Vice President, Jeff Bezos. Speaking to Vogue in 2013, Scott shared that she subsequently ended up working in the office beside him and fell for Bezos after hearing his infectious laugh, so she eventually plucked up the courage to ask him out. About six months later, Scott was walking down the aisle to marry the super successful businessman. In the following years, the marriage of one of the richest couples in history appeared to be thriving as they welcomed four children and founded Amazon together. But, in January 2019, they released a joint statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, to announce that they were amicably parting ways after 25 years together. Scott later shared another X post in April to confirm that they had signed divorce papers. 

Her statement made it clear that she still wholeheartedly believed in her ex-husband's entrepreneurial abilities after Scott revealed, "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 continues contributions with the teams of these incredible companies." Likewise, Bezos clearly had a lot of love for his ex-wife too since he gave her a 4% stake in Amazon. Scott ultimately walked away from their divorce around $35 billion richer since that 4% was actually 25% of her ex-husband's stake in the online retailer. 

Shortly after Jeff Bezos and Mackenzie Scott announced their divorce, The National Inquirer reported that the billionaire had been cheating on his wife with Lauren Sanchez for almost eight months. To make matters even messier, Sanchez had been married to Bezos' pal, Patrick Whitesell, for over a decade at that point. The tabloid claimed that the pair came clean about their supposed affair to their spouses in the fall of 2018. Later, The National Enquirer shared intimate texts that Bezos and Sanchez had allegedly sent to each other months before he went public with his split from Scott. Whitesell ultimately left Sanchez, adding himself to the list of men she's dated, in January 2019, just as their divorce proceedings were in full swing, per Us Weekly. While everyone turned their eyes towards the cheating scandal, Scott tried to stir a positive change in the world. 

In May 2019, she posted an article to the Giving Pledge, to share her philanthropy plans, writing, "I have a disproportionate amount of money to share. My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care. But I won't wait. And I will keep at it until the safe is empty." And she did not make this promise lightly either. Forbes later reported that she gave away $2.2 billion in 2023 alone, while Scott's total donations had already surpassed $16 billion by then too. Suffice it to say, Scott's making good use of all the money she got from her Bezos divorce.