What an Amazon delivery! Tycoon’s ex to give away £15BILLION
...that’s why I’m giving away half my £29bn divorce deal, says the former Mrs Amazon
SHE is the third-richest women in the world – for the time being – as a result of her divorce from Amazon boss Jeff Bezos.
But MacKenzie Bezos is clearly finding her new- found wealth weighing heavily on her.
For she has decided to send herself plunging down the rich list by donating at least half her £29billion fortune to charity.
The 49-year-old announced yesterday that she had signed the Giving Pledge, which encourages those at the top of the global rich list to give away most of their fortune.
Mrs Bezos finalised her divorce from her husband of 26 years only last month. Despite still being the world’s richest man with a £88.9billion fortune, Mr Bezos, 55, has so far declined to match her philanthropy
In a letter on the Giving Pledge website announcing her decision, mother-of-four Mrs Bezos said she had a ‘disproportionate amount’ of cash to share. The letter said that she would continue to give away her money ‘until the safe is empty’.
Mrs Bezos, a novelist, added that ‘something greater rises up every time we give’. She said that as the years go by the value of giving ‘keeps multiplying and spreading in ways we may never know’.
She wrote: ‘ 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.’
Mr Bezos is the only American among the world’s richest men not to sign the Giving Pledge, which was set up by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and investor Warren Buffett in 2010.
Signatories include Facebook chairman Mark Zuckerberg and Google co-founder Larry Page.
Mr and Mrs Bezos announced they were splitting in January and finalised their divorce last month.
Mr Bezos is now dating Lauren Sanchez, 49, a US TV presenter.
Under the terms of the divorce, Mrs Bezos gave Mr Bezos all her interests in The Washington Post newspaper and Blue Origin, his rocket ship venture, as well as 75 per cent of the Amazon stock they owned.
The 25 per cent she retained was enough to make her the 22nd richest person in the world. Even giving away half of her wealth will keep her inside the top 50.
Mr Bezos is far behind his ex-wife when it comes to giving and until September last year had not engaged in much public philanthropy.
That changed with the launch of the Bezos Day One Fund, which pledged £1.4billion to support homeless families and education programmes in underserved communities.
The world’s richest woman is Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, 65, the granddaughter of the founder of the L’Oreal cosmetics empire.
She has a net worth of £42.6billion. She controls 33 per cent of the firm’s holding company, which belonged to her mother Liliane until her death in September 2017.
‘I’ll keep on until the safe is empty’