Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos are getting divorced and it looks like she’s going to get half of the 137.2 billion dollar fortune that he (not she) earned.
Now here are some important caveats. The two of them were married when he founded Amazon and I have heard claims she played a significant role in that. However, I’ve read a dozen articles on it and as far as I can tell, he came up with the idea, he made it work and he stuck with it over the years. On the other hand, every article I’ve read seems to indicate she was an accountant early on and then moved on to writing novels and being involved with anti-bullying initiatives and other vanity projects that she paid for with the money that her husband earned.
Then there’s the claim that Jeff Bezos had an affair. I’m not actually sure that’s true because they may have been separated when that was happening. Some people would argue that’s still cheating, but most people wouldn’t.
So, there are definitely some question marks about the whole thing, but I think it’s important to ask what did MacKenzie Bezos do to EARN 68 billion dollars? Again, as far as I can tell from reading multiple articles on it, her contribution to Amazon was being an accountant for a while. She certainly didn’t have to cook, clean or do anything of significance around the house if she didn’t want to do it because her husband built one of the greatest companies in the world. So, she spent the vast majority of her marriage living a life of leisure like few people in human history off of money her husband earned and I keep emphasizing that because if she lived a thousand lifetimes she would have only earned a fraction of what her husband did. “Oh, but he never could have done that well without her helping him” — bullsh*t. “Oh, but she deserves half!” Why does she deserve half of what HE (not she) earned? Because you’ve heard it repeated a lot? If J.K. Rowling’s husband gets divorced tomorrow so he can go off to drive fast cars and bang 18 year-olds, does he deserve half of her Harry Potter money because she had the incredible privilege of being married to him? I don’t think so. If women were honest, they’d say the exact same thing, but they have been raised with the idea that they “deserve half” no matter what the circumstances are. I come from the school of thought that you should do everything you can to make life good for your wife while you are married and should protect yourself as much as possible if you get divorced.