A look inside the marriage of the richest couple in history, Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos — who met before Amazon started, were married for 25 years, and are now getting divorced (2024)

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Áine Cain and Paige Leskin

Updated

2019-07-06T20:13:00Z

A look inside the marriage of the richest couple in history, Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos — who met before Amazon started, were married for 25 years, and are now getting divorced (1)

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and his ex-wife, MacKenzie Bezos, finalized their divorce Friday in a $38 billion settlement.
The couple said back in January they were getting divorced after 25 years of marriage and four kids together.
Here's a look inside how the Bezos couple met, and the life they had together.

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Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos, who were once the richest couple in history, have officially split.

Bloomberg reports the Bezos pair finalized their divorce in court on Friday. Under the terms of their divorce settlement, MacKenzie Bezos will keep a small stake in Amazon worth $38 billion, vaulting her to the position of world's third-richest women alive.

The couple met before Amazon was even founded in 1994. They were engaged within three months of starting to date, and married within six months. They were married for 25 years, and have four children together.

This is an update to a post originally published in November 2017.

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MacKenzie and Jeff first met in 1992 at the hedge fund D.E. Shaw. Jeff was the first person to interview MacKenzie —a fellow Princeton grad —at the firm. MacKenzie was a research associate, and Jeff was a vice president.

Source:Business Insider,Forbes,Vogue

"I think my wife is resourceful, smart, brainy, and hot, but I had the good fortune of having seen her résumé before I met her, so I knew exactly what her SATs were," he joked to Vogue in 2013.

Source:Vogue

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After MacKenzie landed the job, she and Jeff became office neighbors. "All day long I listened to that fabulous laugh," she told Vogue. "How could you not fall in love with that laugh?"

Source:Vogue

Jeff said he knew from the beginning that he wanted to marry a resourceful person. "Nobody knows what you mean when you say, 'I'm looking for a resourceful woman,'" he told Wired in 1999. "If I tell somebody I’m looking for a woman who can get me out of a Third World prison, they start thinking Ross Perot ... They have something they can hang their hat on!"

Source:Wired,Business Insider

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MacKenzie made the first move and asked Jeff out to lunch. They were engaged within three months, and married within six months in 1993.

Source:Wired

Soon after, Jeff told MacKenzie about his revolutionary idea for an online bookstore. She has said that while she's not a "business person," she could hear the "passion and the excitement" in his voice when he spoke about the idea. She told CBS, "Watching your spouse, somebody that you love, have an adventure — what is better than that, and being part of that?"

Source: "CBS This Morning"

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In 1994, the couple quit their jobs in New York City, and drove across the country to Seattle to found Amazon. While MacKenzie drove, Jeff was "tapping out a business plan on his computer along the way" and "calling prospective investors on a cell phone."

Source: Wired, Entrepreneur

MacKenzie became an accountant for Amazon, making her one of the company's earliest employees. She was reportedly responsible for negotiating Amazon's first freight contracts at a Barnes and Noble bookstore.

Source: Business Insider, Wired

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Until about 1999, the couple rented a one-bedroom house in Seattle. They own five houses across the US: in Medina, Washington; Beverly Hills, California; Van Horn, Texas; Washington, DC; and Manhattan, New York.

Source: Business Insider, Wired

Until 2013, MacKenzie still drove the couple's four kids to school and Jeff off at work in the family's Honda. A family friend, Danny Hillis, told Vogue that the Bezoses "are such a normal, close-knit family, it's almost abnormal."

Source:Vogue

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The family adhered to a fairly normal routine, reportedly starting the day with a healthy breakfast. To spend more time with his family, Jeff never schedules early-morning meetings at Amazon.

Source:Entrepreneur,Inc.

When it comes to educating their four kids, Jeff and MacKenzie have tried a range of strategies, including "off-season travel, kitchen-science experiments, chicken incubation, Mandarin lessons, the Singapore math program, and lots of clubs and sports with other neighborhood kids," MacKenzie told Vogue.

Source:Vogue

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MacKenzie —who was an assistant to Toni Morrison in college —is now a novelist. She's written two books: "The Testing of Luther Albright" and "Traps."

Source:Vogue

Jeff told Vogue he would sometimes wake up during vacations to find his wife working on her first novel in hotel bathrooms. MacKenzie told Vogue that Jeff is her "best reader."

Source: Heavy.com, Vogue

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However, MacKenzie didn't become a part of Amazon's publishing imprint. "We are calling her the fish that got away," Jeff told Vogue.

Source:Heavy.com,Vogue

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MacKenzie told Vogue that their personalities complemented each other. "He likes to meet people. He's a very social guy," she said. "co*cktail parties for me can be nerve-racking. The brevity of conversations, the number of them — it's not my sweet spot."

Source: Vogue

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Jeff told Vogue he would often buy clothes for MacKenzie on the fly. "Sometimes I call her and say, 'What's your such-and-such size?' and she says, 'Why?' and I say, 'None of your business!'" he said. "It delights her."

Source:Vogue

The Amazon CEO has said he wraps up the day with a chore that MacKenzie appreciates: washing the dishes. "I'm pretty convinced it's the sexiest thing I do," he told Business Insider CEO Henry Blodget in 2014.

Source:Recode

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Jeff and MacKenzie announced in April in separate statements on Twitter that they had finalized their divorce agreement. MacKenzie wrote they had "finished the process of dissolving" their marriage, and were "looking forward to next phase as co-parents and friends."

Source: Business Insider

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The Bezos marriage was officially dissolved in a Washington court on Friday. With the official split, the terms of the divorce were finalized, which vaults MacKenzie to the position of the third-richest woman in the world, according to Forbes' list.

Source: Business Insider

A look inside the marriage of the richest couple in history, Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos — who met before Amazon started, were married for 25 years, and are now getting divorced (2024)

MacKenzie and Jeff first met in 1992 at the hedge fund D.E. Shaw. Jeff was the first person to interview MacKenzie —a fellow Princeton grad —at the firm. MacKenzie was a research associate, and Jeff was a vice president.

"I think my wife is resourceful, smart, brainy, and hot, but I had the good fortune of having seen her résumé before I met her, so I knew exactly what her SATs were," he joked to Vogue in 2013.

After MacKenzie landed the job, she and Jeff became office neighbors. "All day long I listened to that fabulous laugh," she told Vogue. "How could you not fall in love with that laugh?"

MacKenzie made the first move and asked Jeff out to lunch. They were engaged within three months, and married within six months in 1993.

In 1994, the couple quit their jobs in New York City, and drove across the country to Seattle to found Amazon. While MacKenzie drove, Jeff was "tapping out a business plan on his computer along the way" and "calling prospective investors on a cell phone."

MacKenzie became an accountant for Amazon, making her one of the company's earliest employees. She was reportedly responsible for negotiating Amazon's first freight contracts at a Barnes and Noble bookstore.

Until about 1999, the couple rented a one-bedroom house in Seattle. They own five houses across the US: in Medina, Washington; Beverly Hills, California; Van Horn, Texas; Washington, DC; and Manhattan, New York.

Until 2013, MacKenzie still drove the couple's four kids to school and Jeff off at work in the family's Honda. A family friend, Danny Hillis, told Vogue that the Bezoses "are such a normal, close-knit family, it's almost abnormal."

The family adhered to a fairly normal routine, reportedly starting the day with a healthy breakfast. To spend more time with his family, Jeff never schedules early-morning meetings at Amazon.

MacKenzie —who was an assistant to Toni Morrison in college —is now a novelist. She's written two books: "The Testing of Luther Albright" and "Traps."

Jeff told Vogue he would sometimes wake up during vacations to find his wife working on her first novel in hotel bathrooms. MacKenzie told Vogue that Jeff is her "best reader."

However, MacKenzie didn't become a part of Amazon's publishing imprint. "We are calling her the fish that got away," Jeff told Vogue.

MacKenzie told Vogue that their personalities complemented each other. "He likes to meet people. He's a very social guy," she said. "co*cktail parties for me can be nerve-racking. The brevity of conversations, the number of them — it's not my sweet spot."

Jeff told Vogue he would often buy clothes for MacKenzie on the fly. "Sometimes I call her and say, 'What's your such-and-such size?' and she says, 'Why?' and I say, 'None of your business!'" he said. "It delights her."

The Amazon CEO has said he wraps up the day with a chore that MacKenzie appreciates: washing the dishes. "I'm pretty convinced it's the sexiest thing I do," he told Business Insider CEO Henry Blodget in 2014.

Jeff and MacKenzie announced in April in separate statements on Twitter that they had finalized their divorce agreement. MacKenzie wrote they had "finished the process of dissolving" their marriage, and were "looking forward to next phase as co-parents and friends."

The Bezos marriage was officially dissolved in a Washington court on Friday. With the official split, the terms of the divorce were finalized, which vaults MacKenzie to the position of the third-richest woman in the world, according to Forbes' list.

References