MacKenzie Bezos, ex-wife of Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, just pledged to donate half of her wealth to charity via The Giving Pledge, an organization created by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett that invites billionaires to publicly dedicate more than half of their wealth to philanthropy.
After her divorce, Bezos came away as the fourth-richest woman in the world with roughly $35.6 billion, which means she'll be giving away at least $17.8 billion.
"We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share. My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care. But I won’t wait. And I will keep at it until the safe is empty," said Bezos in her Pledge letter.
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The Giving Pledge, which has been signed by Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, David Rockefeller, Airbnb founder Brian Chesky, and LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, has notably not been signed by Jeff Bezos. Bezos did, however, throw some support his ex-wife's way on Twitter this morning following the announcement, though.
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. https://t.co/S2gLLBQyRQ
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) May 28, 2019
During their marriage, Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos pledged to donate $2 billion to fund nonprofits that help homeless families and to create a network of preschools in low-income communities. Even post-divorce (where there was allegedly no prenup), Jeff Bezos remains the richest person in the world, with a net worth of $114 billion.