MacKenzie Scott: ex-wife of Jeff Bezos gives away $4bn in four months

MacKenzie Scott: ex-wife of Jeff Bezos gives away $4bn in four months

MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of the Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, has donated more than $4bn in the past four months to hundreds of charities and aid organisations, including food banks fighting the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Scott, who has a personal net worth of more than $60bn (£44.5bn), pledged to give away much of her wealth after her divorce settlement with Bezos last year.

In July, Scott said she had donated $1.7bn to 116 charities. On Tuesday, the 50-year-old said she had decided to "accelerate“ her donations this year, and in the past four months had given a further $4.15bn to 384 organisations across the US and Puerto Rico, taking her total donations this year to $6bn.

"This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,“ she wrote in a blogpost titled 384 Ways to Help. "Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of colour, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.“

Bezos, who was married to MacKenzie for 26 years, is the world's wealthiest person, with a fortune estimated at $185bn, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, up from $113bn before the pandemic.

MacKenzie