Update: The world's richest couple are officially divorced, and while their separation statement may have invented the new conscious uncoupling to a whole host of ridicule, their settlement and statements since are truly proving the worth of the Gwyneth Paltrow-esque process.
According to the couple, Jeff Bezo's - Amazon CEO and the world's richest man - will keep 75% of his shares in Amazon, while Mackenzie - award-wining author and charity director - will receive 25%, giving her a 4% stake in the company amounting to $35.6bn. Making her now the third richest woman in the world, their settlement has been met with sexist remarks despite the fact Jeff clearly receives more wealth than Mackenzie.
Headlines focusing on how the 'World's richest man agrees to' record-breaking divorce settlement, how divorce 'leaves Jeff Bezo's ex the fourth richest woman'. As (sadly) expected, the coverage belittles Mackenzie, as if she wasn't an equal partner in the marriage and just as important in agreeing settlements, and implies she's in some way robbed Jeff of his fortune.
That being said, the couple seem unphased by the headlines, tweeting yesterday about the settlement, Mackenzie said she was 'grateful to have finished the process of dissolving my marriage to Jeff with support from each other'. Concurring, Jeff also tweeted:
'I'm so grateful to all my friends and family for reaching out with encouragement and love... MacKenzie most of all.
'She is resourceful and brilliant and loving,' he continued, 'and as our futures unroll, I know I'll always be learning from her.'
I guess we were too soon to ridicule the whole 'loving exploration and trial separation' thing then huh? If it allows for a supportive and stress-free divorce, and leaves you with a £35bn fortune, it might actually be worth trying.
We previously wrote...
After 25-years of marriage, the Bezo’s, otherwise known as the world’s richest couple, are separating and their divorce statement has sparked viral ridicule. MacKenzie Bezos – award-winning author and charity director- and her husband Jeff - the Amazon CEO and richest man in the world - decided to split after what they describe as ‘a long period of loving exploration and trial separation.’
‘We want to make people aware of a development in our lives,’ the couple said in a joint statement made on Twitter just hours ago, ‘As our family and close friends know, after a long period of loving exploration and trial separation, we have decided to divorce and continue our shared lives as friends. We feel incredibly lucky to have found each other and deeply grateful for every one of the years we have been married to each other.
‘If we had known we would separate after 25 years, we would do it all again,’ the statement continued, ‘We've had such a great life together as a married couple and we also see wonderful futures ahead, as parents, friends, partners in ventures and projects, and as individuals pursuing ventures and adventures. Though the labels might be different, we remain a family, and we remain cherished friends.’
With the divorce statement now going viral, many are wondering what exactly a period of ‘loving exploration and trial separation’ means. Much like when Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin used the term ‘conscious uncoupling’, the average human that uses normal terms for divorce like, you know, divorce or separation, has been left scratching their head. Search the term ‘loving exploration’ on Twitter and you’ll find a series of people asking what we’re all thinking: WHAT DOES THAT ACTUALLY MEAN?
Is this the Bezo’s way of hinting they explored non-monogamy prior to separation? Was it just a weird turn of phrase? It’s hard to believe given the world’s richest couple likely passed the statement through several PR-trained hands before making it public. And with that in mind, we can only conclude one thing: this is all just a ploy to make us buy an Alexa so we can ask the damn thing what they’re going on about.
The couple met back in 1993 when Jeff interviewed MacKenzie for a job at a hedge fund in New York. Engaged just three months of dating and married very soon after, Jeff founded Amazon the next year as an online book retailor. Since becoming an e-commerce giant, the couple have pursued various philanthropic endeavours, just last year starting the Day One Fund, which aims to help homeless families and build pre-schools in low-income communities.
MacKenzie herself also founded the anti-bullying organization Bystander Revolution, where she serves as executive director. Writing two novels, The Testing of Luther Albright (2005) and Traps (2013), her and Jeff have four children together.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, Jeff is worth $137bn and is the world’s wealthiest man, with amazon valued at $797 billion on Monday, overtaking Microsoft on the US stock market. With wealth like that, it’s no wonder we don’t understand their divorce statement, billionaire speak is basically another language to us mere mortals.