Jeff Bezos Maintains His Status As The World’s Richest Man Even After Expensive Divorce
Jeff Bezos recently finalized his messy divorce from ex-wife MacKenzie Bezos for a whopping $35 billion. Bezos is the 54-year-old creator and owner of Amazon and the owner of the publication The Washington Post since 2013. In July of 2017, he became the world’s wealthiest man and has maintained that status ever since. Even after his pricey divorce, he still has a net worth of approximately $110 billion dollars. To put that in perspective, he is wealthier than Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Donald Trump. Bezos and his soon-to-be ex-wife are parting ways but intend to be involved co-parents to their children, according to USA Today. They were married for 26 years.
MacKenzie Bezos, a former novelist, took to Twitter to share the news of the divorce being finalized and explain how the couple would be dividing up their massive estate. She has agreed to give her ex-husband 75 percent of their shared stock in Amazon. She will also be giving up her interest in aerospace company Blue Origin and The Washington Post to show her support of his work with these companies. While the romantic aspect of their relationship has ended, she emphasized that they still plan to support one another and remain friends.
Post-divorce, Jeff Bezos will remain the world’s richest person, with a net worth above $110B. MacKenzie Bezos will become her the world's 3rd richest woman https://t.co/Ri27QJjYfI pic.twitter.com/hBkJF8E9bw
— Forbes (@Forbes) April 4, 2019
“Grateful to have finished the process of dissolving my marriage with Jeff with support from each other and everyone who reached out to us in kindness, and looking forward to the next phase as co-parents and friends. Happy to be giving him all of my interests in The Washington Post and Blue Origin, and 75 percent of our Amazon stock plus voting control of my shares to support his continued contributions with the teams of these incredible companies. Excited about my own plans. Grateful for the past as I look forward to what comes next.”
Although it may sound like MacKenzie is handing over a lot, she will still be one of the richest women in the world. She has her own $35.7 billion fortune, ranking third place behind Francoise Bettencourt Meyers and Alice Walton. Meyers is the 65-year-old heiress of L’Oréal and has an estimated $52.9 billion. Meanwhile, Walton is the daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton and inherited the massive company. At 69-years-old, she’s worth about $45 billion.
Overall, MacKenzie is now the 26th wealthiest person on the planet at only 49-years-old.
Following the news of the billionaire couple’s divorce being finalized, Amazon’s stock dropped by about 0.4 percent on Thursday afternoon and closed down at 0.1 percent.
