Washington: MacKenzie Bezos, wife of the globes’ richest man Jeff Bezos for 26 years, is set to walk away with a whopping USD 38 billion in the world’s biggest divorce settlement with the Amazon Founder and CEO.
MacKenzie, 49, an author, will become the world’s fourth-richest woman, and has already promised to give away at least half of her fortune, the CNN business reported.
MacKenzie, who married Jeff in 1993, a year before he started Amazon from his garage in Seattle, has said she had “a disproportionate amount of money to share” and promised to work hard at giving it away “until the safe is empty”.
She announced her intention to make a massive donation in a blog on a website set up by The Giving Pledge, an organisation founded by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, which encourages the super-rich to devote more than half their wealth to philanthropic causes.
The couple, who have four children, finalised their divorce in April in what was reported as the biggest divorce settlement in history, entitling MacKenzie to 25 per cent of couple’s joint Amazon stocks worth around USD 38 billion, the report said.
Even with the settlement, Jeff will be the richest individual in the world with an estimated net worth of USD 118 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The settlement is expected to come this week based on a 90-day timeline given in a financial disclosure filed in April.
The Amazon CEO will not lose control of the e-commerce giant despite now owning fewer shares. “This is because despite his soon-to-be ex-wife walking away with a 4 per cent stake in Amazon, she has voluntarily ceded her voting rights to Jeff Bezos,” said the report on Tuesday.
Applauding his ex-wife on her donation decision, 55-year-old Jeff said: “MacKenzie is going to be amazing and thoughtful and effective at philanthropy, and I’m proud of her. Her letter is so beautiful. Go get ’em MacKenzie,” on Twitter.
MacKenzie has also given her stocks in other companies: “Happy to be giving him all of my interests in the Washington Post, Blue Origin (private space company) and 75 per cent of our Amazon stock plus voting control of my shares,” she tweeted recently.
The pair first announced plans to separate in January following reports of Jeff cheating on his wife, claims that he denied later.
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