Jeff Bezos & Bill Gates' Ex Wives Have A Close Friendship

Just when the world thought it had recovered from watching Donald Trump and Elon Musk go from BFFs to bitter enemies, another pair of billionaire besties burst into view: Melinda Gates and MacKenzie Scott. Thankfully, their friendship is far more palatable since these two hugely impressive ladies are among the small percentage of people who managed to avoid widespread public backlash to their exorbitant personal wealth on account of their consistent charitable endeavors. During a September 2025 interview with Vanity Fair, Melinda opened up about her bond with Jeff Bezos' ex-wife. "We talk about all kinds of things," she confirmed. "Our kids, what we're doing in life, how we like to spend our time. She's a lovely, lovely person." 

Meanwhile, while chatting to the New York Times the year before, Melinda noted that she had also discussed philanthropy extensively with Scott. In addition to stating that she had "huge respect" for her friend's many multi-billion-dollar donations, Melinda also gushed, "She certainly has had an effect on me in philanthropy, and I hope I've had an effect on her." According to Forbes, in 2020, the two women joined forces on a creative solution to reducing gender inequality: The Equality Can't Wait Challenge. 

The contest encouraged companies to brainstorm solutions to reduce the obstacles that women in power face, promising to bestow a whopping $30 million on the institution that came up with the best idea. There's no doubt Scott had tremendous faith in her friend's endeavor because her own $30 million contribution to the challenge was the celebrated philanthropist's most generous public donation, as of June 2020.

One tragic truth of MacKenzie Scott's life also rings true for Melinda Gates: Their respective former partners' reported infidelity. According to a 2019 report by the National Enquirer, Jeff Bezos controversially kickstarted his romance with Lauren Sánchez Bezos while he was still married to Scott. Meanwhile, in 2021, a spokesperson for Bill Gates shared a statement with the New York Times confirming that the Microsoft founder had an affair with one of his employees nearly two decades prior. However, it's unclear if Melinda was aware of that eyebrow-raising revelation about Bill Gates' personal life when they parted ways in 2021. 

CBS News asked the tech billionaire's ex-wife about the infidelity rumors directly during a 2022 interview, but Melina remained tight-lipped, reasoning, "Those are questions Bill needs to answer." Another similarity between the two philanthropists lays in their decision to make the most of their divorces. In May 2019, only a month after she became $36 billion richer following her split from Jeff Bezos, Scott vowed to give away the majority of her wealth as part of her promise to Bill, Melinda, and Warren Buffett's the Giving Pledge. True to her word, by 2025, she'd donated at least $19 billion. 

Melinda, on the other hand, acknowledged to People in April of that same year that nobody should have her 29-billion-dollar net worth. Hence why she intended to use most of her fortune to help fund charitable endeavors that benefited women. With time, it has become increasingly obvious that Melinda is better off without Bill Gates, while Scott has done wonders for her reputation by splitting from her ex-husband.