Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, has announced on his Twitter account that he is separated from his wife MacKenzie after 25 years of marriage.
“We want to tell people how to live our lives, we have decided to follow our life as friends, and we feel incredibly fortunate to have found each other. deeply grateful for each of the years we have been married, “he wrote on Twitter.
The richest man in the world, whose fortune is estimated at some 137 billion dollars, met MacKenzie in New York in 1992 and they married the following year.
“If we had known 25 years ago that we were going to separate, we would do it all over again. We had a great life together as a couple, and we see a great future on the horizon as parents, friends, companions of adventures and projects and as individuals in search of more adventures and projects. Although the denominations now change, we are still a family, and also dear friends, ” he added on the tweet.
By the end of 2018, Jeff Bezos unseated Bill Gates as the richest American, according to Forbes, by increasing his $ 78.5 billion fortune in the last year alone.
Fortune Sharing
Amazon was founded in 1993, a year after their official marriage, this means that according to their Washington State laws, fortune founded by both should be shared equally.
This would gift wife MacKenzie a half of 137 Billion Dollars, which would mean that the two will have 66 billion dollar each. Making the wife richest billionaire on earth.
This would take back Bill Gates to position one as world’s richest man.
But legal experts noted that MacKenzie would not want to dilute the family fortune and let Bezos continue controlling the fortune
“The issue will be how to value the assets with diminished control,” said Jeffrey Fisher, a divorce attorney in West Palm Beach who has handled several billionaire divorces. “There would be an argument by the attorneys that the Amazon stake is not worth as much without Bezos in control, so that would affect any settlement.”
The most expensive U.S. divorce so far is believed to be Steve and Elaine Wynn in 2010, which was estimated at $1 billion. Oil tycoon Harold Hamm famously wrote a check for $974.8 million in 2012 for his divorce.
