Jeff Bezos announces divorce from wife of 25 years

Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos are getting a divorce
(Image credit: Jorg Carstensen/AFP/Getty Images)

On Wednesday, Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos announced that he and wife MacKenzie Bezos are getting a divorce after a trial separation. "We feel incredibly lucky to have found each other and deeply grateful for every one of the years we have been married to each other," the couple said a joint statement. "If we had known we would separate after 25 years, we would do it all again." The couple, who have four children, say they plan to remain a family and "cherished friends."

Bezos is thought to be the world's wealthiest man, worth an estimated $137 billion, and Amazon just became the most valuable publicly traded company in the U.S., with a market value Wednesday of $811 billion. The terms of their divorce settlement are not public, but "if MacKenzie Bezos were to receive a quarter of her husband's estimated fortune in the divorce — $40 billion — she would be among the world's richest women," CBS News reports. "The property acquired during the marriage is common property," said Jennifer Payseno, a family lawyer at the Seattle firm McKinley Irvin. She and other divorce experts said they expected the Bezoses already reached a private, out-of-court division of their assets.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.