MacKenzie Bezos’s charity statement reveals subtle dig at Amazon CEO
MacKenzie Bezos is worth $52 billion — and she has just used a huge charity donation announcement to make a sneaky swipe at her ex.
MacKenzie Bezos has made headlines across the globe after promising to give tens of billions of dollars to charity.
But while news outlets have clamoured to praise the generosity of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s ex-wife, one sentence buried in her announcement was missed.
And it revealed a subtle but telling dig at her former husband.
Yesterday, the mum of four signed up to the Giving Pledge campaign — an initiative founded by billionaires Warren Buffett and Bill Gates that encourages the world’s wealthiest people to dedicate most of their fortunes to worthy causes.
Ms Bezos became a billionaire overnight in April after finalising her divorce from her husband of 25 years who has an estimated net worth of around $A164.42 billion, making him the world’s richest man.
It netted her an estimated $A52.79 billion, and she has now vowed to donate at least $A26 billion over her lifetime.
“We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand,” Ms Bezos said in a statement.
“In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share.
“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.”
But among her moving pledge, three words in particular stand out.
Ms Bezos’s vow “I won’t wait” — coming just weeks after her windfall — is a stark contrast to her ex-husband’s refusal to donate significant amounts of money to charity for years on end despite his regular appearance on the top of rich lists.
It’s a stance he’s been widely criticised for — and Ms Bezos’s words have only reinforced her ex-husband’s notorious stinginess.
In an April 2018 interview, he famously told Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner he struggled to think of ways to spend his money, and as a result, he was throwing most of his wealth into his space company Blue Origin.
“The only way that I can see to deploy this much financial resource is by converting my Amazon winnings into space travel. That is basically it,” Mr Bezos said at the time.
sign the giving pledge
— rose رز‌‌‌ (@rosechehrazi) 28 May 2019
“Blue Origin is expensive enough to be able to use that fortune. I am currently liquidating about $1 billion a year of Amazon stock to fund Blue Origin.
“And I plan to continue to do that for a long time. Because you’re right, you’re not going to spend it on a second dinner out.”
Five months later, after many media organisations had reported on Mr Bezos’s apparent disinterest in philanthropy, he revealed he planned to donate $US2 billion to causes such as homelessness and early childhood education.
But while it seemed like an impressive number, that figure actually only represented 1.3 per cent of his net worth, according to Vanity Fair.
Meanwhile, the working conditions of Amazon staff have regularly been criticised, including by writer James Bloodworth who went undercover at the company to reveal workers were “afraid to take toilet breaks and days off sick because they fear disciplinary action at work”.
sketchiest tweet I've seen in 2019 thus far....you have publicly said you will not take the same action as RICHEST MAN IN THE WORLD
— Jay Scott (@jaybirdofbklyn) 28 May 2019
To his credit, Mr Bezos took to Twitter to praise his ex-wife, saying she will be “amazing and thoughtful and effective at philanthropy” and he was “proud” of her.
And he has donated to various causes in the past, including $US3 million in support of legalising same-sex marriage in 2012, much larger donations to his parents’ Bezos Family Foundation as well as to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre.
But Twitter users have been quick to condemn him for not doing enough to give back.
“Mr Bezos, how does it feel to know you could provide homes for so many ppl, lobby on behalf of affordable housing, pay your employees well, & still be the richest person in the world, but you don’t bc you don’t want to?” one Twitter user asked, while another said: “Please sign the pledge too. Nobody needs the amount of money you have. Don’t be greedy!”
INSIDE WORLD’S MOST EXPENSIVE DIVORCE
In January, news broke the Amazon CEO was splitting from his wife — and he had already moved on with former TV host Lauren Sanchez.
US tabloid magazine the National Enquirer then published details that allegedly revealed an affair between Mr Bezos and Ms Sanchez that began while the CEO was still married.
In February, Mr Bezos accused the publication of “extortion and blackmail”, claiming it threatened to publish intimate photos of him unless he went on the record to say the tabloid was not “politically motivated or influenced by political forces” as a result of its alleged ties to US President Donald Trump.
In April, Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos reached a settlement, with Ms Bezos handing over her stake in the Washington Post newspaper and Blue Origin.
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