Jeff Bezos' Ex-Wife MacKenzie Scott Has One Thing He Never Will

Jeff Bezos, the man with a net worth well over $200 billion, lives quite the lavish life with his wife, Lauren Sánchez. And before Sánchez came along, he lived a lavish life with his first wife, MacKenzie Scott. Scott and Bezos started Amazon together, and when they divorced after 25 years of marriage, Scott reportedly walked away with a reported $38.3 billion. Since then, Bezos and Sánchez have been busy being mocked for their overly expensive and boring wedding and buying a yacht that cost half a billion dollars, while Scott has used her money to try and make the world a better place, donating almost half of her wealth to charitable organizations in less than a decade. Unsurprisingly, this has given Scott something her ex-husband is lacking: the respect of others.

A quick look at X shows the difference. Discussions about Bezos include statements like, "Jeff Bezos should honestly be ashamed to sell that crap," and the very succinct, "F*** Jeff Bezos and f*** the Washington Post." At the same time, a post about Scott donating $70 million to Meals on Wheels is met with adoring responses. One X user took a moment to compare Scott to her ex, saying, "It's clear why she and Jeff didn't work. She's obviously a much better person than he is," while another responded, "When yall eat the rich, leave this lady alone or we're gonna have problems."

Since her divorce, MacKenzie Scott has shown the world who she is by, as the saying goes, putting her money where her mouth is. In 2019, shortly after her divorce, Scott joined The Giving Pledge and explained her thinking, on her Yield Giving website, writing, "My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care. But I won't wait. And I will keep at it until the safe is empty." In 2025, Scott donated hundreds of millions to a number of good causes, including ones that saw their government funding cut under the Trump administration. 

Scott continued to stick it to Donald Trump in 2026, giving the Trevor Project nearly double the amount of funding Trump took from the organization. Along with the Trevor Project and Meals on Wheels, Scott has donated over a billion dollars to HBCUs, community colleges, and tribal colleges over five years, helping keep a number of institutions afloat as they lose government funding. Because of her philanthropy, Scott has found herself in the very rare space of being a billionaire that people aren't constantly mad at. Or, as on person on X put it, "Mackenzie Scott is the real deal. I can't even imagine what drew her to Bezos. She's gold and he's dust."