One of the richest women, but also one of the most generous in the world: the ex-wife of Jeff Bezos, MacKenzie Scott, is illustrated by her philanthropy, by giving nearly nine billion dollars to American associations since her divorce in 2019.
His generosity does not diminish as his fortune grows. MacKenzie Scott, voted the most powerful woman in the world by Forbes, puts at the service of the public good the immense fortune of which she became the beneficiary at her divorce from Jeff Bezos. The wealthy founder of Amazon, who is celebrating his 58th birthday this Wednesday, January 12, would have had an extra-marital affair, which would have pushed the couple to final separation. Since their split, his ex-wife has spent no less than $ 8.6 billion on charitable causes.
In recent years, MacKenzie Scott has given freely of his fortune to artistic and environmental associations, LGBT rights organizations, groups fighting against racial discrimination, but also university departments in California, Florida and Illinois. Among the beneficiaries, we also find the legendary Apollo Theater in New York, a Harlem theater emblematic of black culture, and mainly black american music. According to The echoes, she would be at the head of a $ 60 billion empire, a third more than in January 2019, thanks in particular to the explosion of online purchases on Amazon linked to the confinements.
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The wish to donate half of his fortune
One of the reasons behind these donations is the heightened awareness of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, which MacKenzie Scott described as a “wrecking ball which arises in the lives of Americans who are already suffering (..) while it has considerably increased the wealth of billionaires “. She refused to “hide at home with this feeling mixed up of gratitude and guilt, and wait for it to be over ”. The novelist thus wants to give back to the community what she has received, by becoming one of the richest women in the world after her divorce in 2019, then by taking the head of this very closed club in September 2020.
In 2019, MacKenzie Scott made a commitment to The Giving Pledge, an organization in which members, one of the richest people in the world, make a vow to give during their lifetime or after their death half of their fortune. It is also thanks to this association of philanthropists that we learned of the remarriage in March 2021 of the ex-wife of Jeff Bezos. Her second husband, Dan Jewett, a private school chemistry teacher in Seattle, posted on March 6, 2021 on the The Giving Pledge his letter of engagement, in which he declared: “And now, by a happy coincidence, I am married to one of the most generous and kind people I know, and join her in her commitment to pass on enormous financial wealth to help others. “
Photo credits: PA Photos / ABACA