World’s richest man and founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, has agreed to part ways with MacKenzie Bezos, his wife, with a record-breaking sum of $35bn as divorce settlement.
The agreement would require that Jeff Bezos forfeits 4% of their 16.3% Amazon stake, which itself is worth $35.6bn.
McKenzie has transferred her voting rights to Jeff and would also give up her interests in the Washington Post newspaper and Blue Origin, Jeff’s space travel firm.
In the wake of the announced settlement, the duo took to Twitter to make positive comments about each other, expressing gratitude to friends and family for their support.
“I’m so grateful to all my friends and family for reaching out with encouragement and love. It means more than you know,” Jeff Bezos wrote.
“McKenzie most of all, I’m grateful for her support and for her kindness in this process. And I’m very much looking forward to our new relationship as friends and co-parents.”
MacKenzie also expressed excitement to have finished the process of dissolving her marriage and conveyed gratitude to those who have reached out to lend them support.
“Happy to be giving him all my interest from Washington Post and Blue Origin, and 75% of our Amazon stock plus voting control of my shares to support his continued contributions with the teams of these incredible companies,” MacKenzie wrote.
Although the duo did not provide further financial details about the settlement, Amazon shares will make MacKenzie the world’s third-richest woman as Jeff remains the world’s richest person.
According to Forbes magazine, the Seattle-based multinational tech company is now a vast online retail business, having generated sales of $232.8bn in 2018 and has earned Bezos’s family up to $131bn.
