Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced after 25 years, 10 months of marriage. The settlement was reportedly about $38B. See the full timeline.
Figures are reported estimates. Last updated Oct 2026.
MacKenzie received 4% of Amazon shares, making her one of the world's richest women.
Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Tuttle met while working at the New York hedge fund D. E. Shaw in the early 1990s. MacKenzie, a Princeton-educated novelist, was reportedly one of his first hires. Their romance was swift — they married in 1993 and famously drove cross-country together to Seattle, with MacKenzie at the wheel while Jeff drafted the business plan for what would become Amazon. They raised four children and, to the outside world, appeared to be inseparable partners in both life and enterprise.
Amazon began in the Bezos family garage, and MacKenzie was one of the company's earliest employees, handling accounting in its infancy. As Jeff grew Amazon from an online bookstore into one of the most valuable companies in the world, the couple's fortune expanded dramatically. By the time of their divorce announcement, Bezos was widely regarded as the richest person on earth, with a net worth exceeding $130 billion.
The couple wed in September 1993 and spent over two decades building Amazon and raising their family. Their union seemed unshakeable until January 2019, when they jointly announced their separation via Twitter — a notably modern and civil way to break the news. Their divorce was finalized in July 2019, just months after the announcement.
MacKenzie received approximately 4% of Amazon's shares — a stake then worth roughly $36 billion to $38 billion — making her one of the wealthiest women in the world overnight. Jeff retained his voting rights on her shares as part of the arrangement, preserving his control over the company. MacKenzie retained no ownership in Amazon's related ventures, including The Washington Post and Blue Origin.
Washington State, where the couple resided, is a community property state — meaning assets acquired during a marriage are typically split equally. Given the extraordinary size of the Amazon fortune, even a partial allocation resulted in a historic sum. MacKenzie's early and instrumental role in the company also gave her a credible claim to a substantial share.
Jeff retained control of Amazon, Blue Origin, and The Washington Post, and continued as executive chairman. MacKenzie, meanwhile, reinvented herself as one of the world's most prolific philanthropists. Under the name MacKenzie Scott, she has donated billions to thousands of charitable organizations, pledging most of her fortune through the Giving Pledge.
The Bezos settlement is the largest divorce settlement whose terms were publicly confirmed, and at the time it was considered the largest in history. It dwarfed Rupert Murdoch's $1.7 billion split with Anna Murdoch and placed the Bezos divorce in a league of its own for nearly two years.
MacKenzie has since remarried — to a Seattle science teacher named Dan Jewett — and continues to give away her fortune at a pace that has astonished economists and philanthropists alike. There was no prenuptial agreement between Jeff and MacKenzie, which ultimately meant her share of Amazon was governed entirely by Washington State's community property laws.
MacKenzie Scott's reported settlement was about $38 billion.
They married in 1993 and divorced in 2019, a marriage of roughly 26 years.
No prenuptial agreement was reported.
Yes, the family is reported to include 4 children.
Reported assets include: Amazon shares (4% stake), real estate, other investments.
Washington State, where the couple resided, is a community property state — meaning assets acquired during a marriage are typically split equally. Given the extraordinary size of the Amazon fortune, even a partial allocation resulted in a historic sum.