As the ex-wife of Jeff Bezos, MacKenzie Scott (née Tuttle, formerly Bezos; April 7, 1970) is a well-known American novelist and philanthropist. She has a net worth of US$33.4 billion as of September 2022 thanks to her 4% ownership position in Jeff Bezos’ company, Amazon. Scott is the 21st wealthiest person in the world and the third wealthiest woman in the United States as a result. Scott was listed among Time’s 100 Most Influential People of 2020 as well as Forbes’ list of the most powerful women in the world in 2021.
Scott’s 2005 debut book, The Testing of Luther Albright, earned an American Book Award in 2006.
Traps, her second book, was released in 2013.
Since she launched the anti-bullying nonprofit Bystander Revolution in 2014, she has served as its executive director.
One of the greatest annual donations made by a single individual to operating charities was made by Scott in 2020, who pledged to donate at least half of her wealth to charity as a signatory to the Giving Pledge.
In 2021, she gave another $2.7 billion.
Billionaire Philanthropist Mackenzie Scott Files For Divorce
Mackenzie Scott has filed for divorce from her second husband, Dan Jewett, a little over a year after they tied the knot.
The billionaire philanthropist, who was previously married to one of the richest men on earth, Jeff Bezos, filed paperwork to dissolve her second marriage to the former high school science teacher in Washington State’s King County Superior Court on Monday, per the New York Times. According to court records, Jewett did not contest the divorce and the division of their property is all laid out in a separation contract that has already been agreed to and signed off on by the couple, but which is not publicly available. The pair first confirmed their marriage in March 2021.
Scott and Jewett originally met through Seattle’s Lakeside School, according to the Washington Post, where her four children with Bezos attend. Scott and Jewett’s marriage first came to light when the school teacher added his name to her page on the Giving Pledge website, a campaign originated by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates in 2010 to encourage the extraordinarily wealthy to give away the majority of their money during their lifetime to charitable causes. Jewett wrote at the time, “It is strange to be writing a letter indicating I plan to give away the majority of my wealth during my lifetime, as I have never sought to gather the kind of wealth required to feel like saying such a thing would have a particular meaning.
I have been a teacher for the majority of my life, as well as a grateful student of the generosity of those around me. This has meant doing my best to follow their example by passing on resources of all kinds—from time, to energy, to material possessions—when I have had them to give. And now, in a stroke of happy coincidence, I am married to one of the most generous and kind people I know—and joining her in a commitment to pass on an enormous financial wealth to serve others.”
Scott was previously married to Bezos for 25 years before the pair announced their divorce in 2019. In April of that year, Bezos and Scott reached a settlement in their divorce that gave her a four percent stake in Amazon, valued at $38.3 billion at the time. By December, Scott revealed in a Medium post that she had donated nearly $4.2 billion of that money to 384 organizations and has plans to give away the majority of her wealth during her lifetime.
Despite that, she is still currently the 30th richest person in the world, while her first ex-husband remains the third with $138 billion, according to Forbes. But it seems like, despite the split, things were friendly between the two exes as the Amazon founder said in a statement to The Wall Street Journal upon hearing the news of Scott’s second marriage, “Dan is such a great guy, and I am happy and excited for the both of them.”
After 18 months of marriage, MacKenzie Scott, a multibillionaire philanthropist and the ex-wife of Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, has filed for divorce from Dan Jewett, according to the New York Times.
In 2021, Scott secretly wed Jewett, a science instructor at the institution where Scott’s kids went to school. Two years after Scott, who had been married to Bezos for 25 years, filed for divorce, they announced their marriage. Scott, who received almost $36 billion in the divorce settlement with Bezos, declared shortly after the breakup that she intended to donate her whole fortune.
In 2019, she stated, “I have a disproportionate amount of money to share, and I will stay at it until the safe is empty. Jewett gave the impression that she was working with Scott to donate their riches while they were still married. In a letter that has since been deleted, he stated that he was “joining her in a pledge to pass on tremendous financial riches to benefit others” and that he was “married to one of the kindest and caring individuals I know.” (According to The Times, Scott has given $12 billion to more than 1,200 organizations since making her pledge, including a sizeable donation to Planned Parenthood.)
The Times reported that there had been hints of divorce for some time, as recent recipients of Scott’s philanthropic contributions had only thanked her. Scott apparently deleted Jewett’s name from a Medium article he authored about their donations, and “her spouse, Dan” has been removed from her Amazon author page. A headshot of Scott alone has taken the place of the couple’s previous joint Giving Pledge profile picture. If I’ve ever seen a wealthy divorce hard launch, this is it.
