Is Jeff Bezos married? No, he isn’t. He is a divorced man regarding his marital status. He is currently in a relationship with Lauren Sánchez (born December 19, 1969). His girlfriend is known as a renowned entertainment reporter and media personality. He was previously married to novelist/ philanthropist MacKenzie Tuttle (born on April 7, 1970). They met in Manhattan in 1992 when Bezos was working for a multinational investment management firm called D. E. Shaw. At that time, MacKenzie was working as a research associate at the firm. They found a strong bond together and started their relationship.
The couple celebrated their wedding on September 4, 1993. The following year, they moved to Seattle, Washington where Bezos made a big breakthrough by founding Amazon. During their twenty-five years of conjugal life, the couple was blessed with four children including an adopted daughter from China.
After being the CEO of Amazon, the duo turned as the richest couple in the world. After separating for a long time, Jeff and MacKenzie came to the decision of getting a divorce. Their intention of getting a divorce was announced on January 9, 2019, by them on their respective Twitter accounts.
The divorce was finalized on April 4, 2019, which was said to be the most expensive divorce settlements in history. Bezos kept 75% of the couple’s Amazon stock which made MacKenzie hold 35.6 billion worth Amazon stock. However, the couple’s voting rights were kept all by Bezos himself.
The world’s expensive divorce settlement made MacKenzie become the fifteenth richest person in the world. The kind-hearted philanthropist MacKenzie signed on the Giving Pledge initiative in May 2019 after deciding to donate at least 50% of her wealth to various charitable causes. Following the divorce, MacKenzie remarried a Seattle-based science teacher named Dan Jewett. Scroll down to explore more interesting personal facts and biography of Bezos:
Who is Jeff Bezos?
Born as Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen, he landed on the planet on January 12, 1964, which makes his age be 56 years old as of 2020. By profession, he is an American entrepreneur, philanthropist and investor best known for being the president and Chief Executive Officer of Amazon.com, Inc.
Bezos turned into the world’s wealthiest person on July 27, 2017, as his estimated net worth crossed 90 billion USD at that time. On November 24, 2017, his estimated net worth crossed 100 billion USD. On March 6, 2018, Forbes listed him as the richest man in the world with an estimated worth of 112 billion USD. In July 2018, his worth crossed 150 billion USD which made him named as the “richest man in modern history.”
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Jeff’s Early Life and Education
Bezos was born in 1964 and her place of birth is in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Talking about his family background, he was born to parents named Jacklyn Gise Jorgensen (mother) and Ted Jorgensen (father). During his birth, his father used to become a bike shop owner whereas his mother was just a 17-year-old high school student.
His parents divorced and Jeff started living with his mother who later married Cuban immigrant Miguel “Mike” Bezos in April 1968. After that, Jeff’s surname was changed to Bezos. The family moved to Houston, Texas, where his step-father used to work as an engineer for Exxon.
Jeffrey’s maternal grandfather named Lawrence Preston Gise used to serve the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) as a regional director. Likewise, he is the cousin to singer George Strait (born on May 18, 1952) through his maternal grandmother named Mattie Louise Gise.
Regarding his education and academic achievements, Jeffrey went to Houston based River Oaks Elementary School up to his sixth grade from fourth. After moving to Miami, he was enrolled at Miami Palmetto High School. During his high school days, he used to serve as a short-order line cook at McDonald’s at the breakfast shift.
For his higher education, Jeffrey went to the University of Florida for the Student Science Training Program. By attending Princeton University, he graduated summa cum laude with a 4.2-grade point average in 1986. He is also the receiver of Bachelor of Science degrees in computer science as well as electrical engineering.
Career and Professional Life: CEO of Amazon
Jeffrey received jobs from different organizations including Andersen Consulting, Bell Labs and Intel, upon the completion of his graduation from Princeton University in 1986. He joined a fintech telecommunications start-up called Fitel where he was assigned to build a network for international trade.
Seeing his performance, he received the promotion as the head of development and director of customer service. Later, he started working for Bankers Trust as a product manager from 1988 to 1990. After that, he was appointed at a newly founded hedge fund, D. E. Shaw & Co. in 1990 where he worked until 1994. At the age of 30, he was able to become the fourth senior vice-president of D. E. Shaw.
He left his job at D. E. Shaw after deciding to start his own business of an online bookstore in late 1993. This was the best decision in his life on July 5, 1994, as he founded Amazon in his garage. He initially named the company Cadabra but later switched his mind to analyzing the name of the Amazon River in South America.
His parents helped him by providing a fund of 300,000 USD which he invested in Amazon. Amazon issued an initial public offering with an aim to go public after three years of founding it. He started selling music and videos online in 1998. The company expanded its service from books to other several consumer products.
He borrowed 2 billion USD from the bank in the year 2000 because its cash reserve was just 350 million USD at that time. Amazon launches Amazon Web Services which also grabbed success in the market. The company nearly went bankrupt in 2002 due to financial distress but Bezos led the company to come out of the problem.
Amazon regained its financial success in 2003 by making a profit of 400 million USD. He launched the Amazon Kindle in November 2007. In October 2013, Amazon was able to establish itself as the largest online shopping retailer in the world.
Bezos sold one million shares which he was held in May 2016 for 671 million USD. He sold another million of his shares on August 4, 2016, for 756.7 million USD. He was seen in Amazon’s Super Bowl commercial on January 29, 2018. With quarterly earnings of 2 billion USD, Amazon secured its highest ever profit on February 1, 2018.
China and India are the two most populous countries in the world and analyzing the fact, he started expanding Amazon’s business in India. This was because Alibaba was rapidly making its growth in China.
In addition to Amazon, Bezos is also the founder of a human spaceflight startup company named Blue Origin which he founded in September 2000. He also invested 250 million USD to purchase The Washington Post which was announced on August 5, 2013.
Personal Life: Marriage and Divorce
Jeff Bezos is a divorced man. He was married to MacKenzie Scott (née Tuttle) who is six years younger than him. They tied their knot on September 4, 1993, which got legally ended on April 4, 2019, after twenty-five years. They have been blessed with three biological sons and also have adopted a daughter from China named Eleanor.
Talking more about his personal life, Jeff Bezos is said to be Christian by religion. He has never given hatred speech towards any religion and gives equal respect to all kinds of beliefs, faith and religions.
Body Measurements: Height and Weight
The world’s richest person Jeff Bezos has an average height of 5 feet and 8 inches. He weighs about 70 kilograms and gives special attention to his diet and nutrition. The workout schedule of Bezos isn’t available. He is not healthy from his physical perspective but is equally active and energized mentally.
Salary and Net worth
American billionaire has an estimated net worth of 205 billion USD as of August 2020. The amount of his net worth varies due to the variation in the market price of the stock exchange. His annual salary and other earnings are above a billion dollars. He is having a luxurious life and recently acquired three adjoining apartments in Manhattan worth 80 million USD in June 2019.
When the entire world was fighting against pandemic Coronavirus (COVID19), the business in almost every sector was experiencing massive losses. But, Amazon was able to increase in those days. When countries were on lockdown, Amazon was able to increase its business which helped Bezos to boost his net worth’s amount.
Bezos is also involved in charitable works as he supports a number of non-profit projects. Through Bezos Expeditions, he has been direct funding to several charitable works. In 2018, he donated 10 million USD to With Honor and 33 million USD to a college scholarship fund, TheDream.US.
Wiki and Facts
The biography of Jeff Bezos is prepared by several wiki sites including Wikipedia and IMDb. Find him on Twitter @jeffbezos where he is being followed by more than 1.7 million followers now. Likewise, his Instagram account is reachable @jeffbezos where he is active with over 2.4 million followers.
Conclusions
There are multiple lessons that we can learn by exploring Bezos’ biography. He is the richest man on earth and most of people take him as their role model. He was a normal person who put his entire efforts and job in order to make his dreams come true. He works to become a success, not to become the richest among others, wealth is just a reward of hard work.