With $137 Billion at Stake, Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos to Divorce

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife MacKenzie are divorcing, according to Bloomberg. “After a long period of loving exploration and trial separation, we have decided to divorce and continue our shared lives as friends,“ the pair tweeted.

While Wall Street took the announcement in stride, investors will be watching to see if the divorce settlement affects Bezos’s control of Amazon. So long as the company is growing and returning profits, he’ll probably maintain their confidence, though a settlement could potentially put a dent in such Bezos side projects as the space exploration company Blue Origin.

The Enquirer and the New York Post reported that Jeff Bezos has been having a relationship with Lauren Sanchez, a former TV anchor and helicopter pilot and the wife of Hollywood talent agent Patrick Whitesell. The New York Post said Sanchez and Whitesell are separated. MacKenzie Bezos was aware that her husband was dating Sanchez during their separation, according to a person close to Jeff Bezos.

Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos met in New York at D.E. Shaw. Jeff was the first person to interview MacKenzie for a role at the hedge fund and the pair ended up having offices next to each other, according to a 2013 interview with Vogue. They married in 1993 and a year later drove across the country to Seattle, where Jeff founded Amazon. They have four children.

MacKenzie, an author, played a significant role at the company in the early years and “was there when he wrote the business plan,“ she wrote in a disparaging 2013 review of a Bezos biography. After her husband became rich and famous, MacKenzie strove to retain her privacy. Her primary influence on Bezos and Amazon was to provide encouragement in the early years and support through tumultuous times.

Bezos, 54, is worth $137 billion. He owns about 16 percent of the retailer as well as the Washington Post and Blue Origin. “Jeff remains focused on and engaged in all aspects of Amazon,“ Drew Herdener, a spokesman for the retailer, said in an emailed statement in response to a question about how the divorce might affect the company and its investors.

A divorce could reshape the global wealth ranking. If the couple split their fortune equally, it could leave MacKenzie, 48, with $69 billion, making her the world’s richest woman. It could also make Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, currently worth $92.5 billion, the planet’s richest person once again. Bezos eclipsed Gates in October 2017.