The Tragic Truth About Jeff Bezos' Ex-Wife MacKenzie Scott's Life

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For several years, MacKenzie Scott had something of a whirlwind dream life. She was married to one of the richest men in the world, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, living in luxury with their four children, and getting a chance to pursue her dream of writing novels. Even as her relationship with Bezos began to crumble, just as many predicted it was doomed to do, and they called it quits on their marriage, she became one of the richest people in the world nearly overnight. Scott raked in over $36 billion in Amazon stock out of her divorce settlement, and turned her sights towards philanthropy.

However, simply having more money than most people could fathom doesn't insulate you from pain and tragedy. This is something Scott has learned the hard way, as she's navigated criticism over her philanthropic efforts and dealt with embarrassment and heartbreak a second time with the collapse of another marriage in the span of just a few years. Looking back at her life, there are quite a few tragic details and difficult challenges Scott has had to overcome to get to where she is today.

Before she became one of the richest women in the world and a record-shattering philanthropist, MacKenzie Scott had a life-long love for the written word. As an adult, Scott wrote two novels, 2005's "The Testing of Luther Albright" and 2013's "Traps." However, even as a child, it seems that Scott was something of a prolific wordsmith. In Scott's since-changed Amazon author bio (via The New York Times), she recalled that she finished her first-ever full-length book, titled "The Book Worm," when she was six years old, and it clocked in at 142 pages.

Sadly, it's impossible to know just how much of a prodigy she was as a child because the first book she ever wrote was destroyed. According to Scott, the manuscript, which would have been completed sometime in 1976 or 1977, was later destroyed in an accident. As Scott wrote in her Fantastic Fiction author bio, "This book was later lost during a flood, when the sole handwritten copy was reduced to a soup of pulp in the drawer of an old roll-top desk." This must have been an emotionally difficult blow to the young and burgeoning creative writer, and likely inspired her to keep backups of her work as she turned to writing in a professional capacity.

MacKenzie Scott knew she wanted to be an author from a young age, and shaped her education to further that goal. Scott decided to attend Princeton University for the chance to study fiction writing under the guidance of acclaimed, Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison. She formed a close friendship with Morrison, who reportedly said (via BBC) that Scott was "one of the best students I've ever had in my creative-writing classes." Morrison became Scott's thesis advisor and later connected her with Scott's longtime literary agent, Amanda Urban.

Scott graduated from Princeton in 1992, the same year, she met future ex-husband Jeff Bezos. The pair had something of a whirlwind romance and ended up getting married just a few months later. The couple welcomed their first son, Preston, in 2000, then welcomed two more sons together before adopting a daughter. In her role as a mother, Scott said she felt it was key to focus on raising her kids before her own ambitions to be a full-time author.

"Writing is such a 'pretend' profession. Nobody is counting on you at all," Scott said in a profile piece for Vogue in 2017. "Kids, on the other hand, have an urgent need to be taken care of. After the third child, I knew I couldn't be the kind of parent I wanted to be and continue writing. Those years were just too busy." This is likely why her 2005 book, "The Testing of Luther Albright," was the only novel under her belt for eight years until her 2013 novel "Traps." That being said, it's now been well over a decade since her sophomore effort, and it's unclear if she's got more ideas for novels waiting to be written in the future.

Jeff Bezos' split from MacKenzie Scott was a messy scandal, complicated not just by how much money Scott aimed to earn from the divorce, but also by the timeline surrounding Bezos' romance with news anchor Lauren Sánchez. Bezos and Scott revealed their decision to call it quits in January 2019 in a joint statement released to Twitter. "After a long period of loving exploration and trial separation, we have decided to divorce and continue our shared lives as friends," the pair wrote (via BBC). "Though the labels might be different, we remain a family, and we remain cherished friends."

Despite trying to control the narrative of their divorce as an amicable break-up, details soon emerged that painted a very different picture, and suggested a very strange and secretive beginning to Bezos' romance with Sánchez. Specifically, the National Enquirer published a slew of sultry and racy text messages Bezos had allegedly been sending Sánchez for months before he had announced his split from Scott – and when Sánchez was still married to Hollywood agent Patrick Whitesell.

The National Enquirer exposé led to a flurry of controversy, lawsuits, and a lengthy, messy, and expensive legal battle between Bezos and Sánchez's brother, Michael Sánchez. Scott, meanwhile, has largely worked on taking the high road and has refrained from commenting on the allegations. Instead, she has been using the money from the divorce to try and make the world a better place through extensive charitable donations and philanthropic work, proving just how classy she can be in the face of adversity and drama.

Two years after MacKenzie Scott's 25-year marriage to Jeff Bezos came to an end, the wealthy author and philanthropist decided to give love another chance. In 2021, Scott tied the knot again with science teacher Dan Jewett, who taught at a school in Seattle, Washington, that Scott's children attended. Jewett signed the Giving Pledge alongside Scott, a movement that encourages rich people to promise to donate the majority of their wealth to charitable endeavours during their lifetime or in their wills. Scott signed the pledge, alongside Jewett, who wrote of his new wife (via People), "I am married to one of the most generous and kind people I know – and joining her in a commitment to pass on an enormous financial wealth to serve others."

It's unclear what transpired over the one year that the pair were married, but Scott filed for divorce in 2022. The divorce was finalized in January 2023, with a separation contract, which essentially means an agreed upon division of marital assets that does not need to be disclosed publicly. Although notably neither party requested spousal support. Since their split, both Scott and Jewett have refrained from publicly commenting on their short-lived marriage, but the entire whirlwind romance must have been somewhat embarrassing – especially since the marriage began and ended before her ex-husband's lavishly expensive Venice wedding to Lauren Sánchez Bezos in June 2025.