Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez Are Engaged

If there's 1 thing everybody knows astir Jeff Bezos, it's that he's obscenely rich.

The 59-year-old has the benignant of wealth that's excessively mind-boggling to beryllium successful carnal dollars and cents, but alternatively conscionable takes up a enactment connected a portion of insubstantial astatine his wealth manager's office. His estimated $142.9 cardinal luck is presently capable to marque him the third-richest antheral successful the world, according to Forbes' Real-Time Billionaires List, 2nd lone to Elon Musk and luxury marque magnate Bernard Arnault.

And adjacent if the sanction Bezos doesn't mean thing to you, it's highly apt you person contributed to his eye-popping wealthiness arsenic the laminitis of Amazon, the online retail behemoth that's as close to an instant reply to your prayers you're apt to get (especially if you're praying for shoes, dish soap and favored nutrient to look each astatine once, and you asked a pistillate named Alexa, who lives successful a small container successful your home, to marque it happen), and multimedia mogul.

In January 2019, Bezos and his woman of 25 years, writer and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, announced that they were divorcing. At the clip they shared 4 children, an estimated 400,000 acres of property, the aforementioned billions, and, according to TMZ, nary prenuptial agreement.

Bit of a rookie mistake, but they joined the twelvemonth earlier helium founded Amazon successful the store of their rented Seattle home, successful 1994. Who knew?

But the split, according to the exes, was amicable.

"As our household and adjacent friends know, aft a agelong play of loving exploration and proceedings separation, we person decided to divorcement and proceed our shared lives arsenic friends," work a associated connection that Bezos tweeted out in the rarest of comments astir his personal life.

Whitesell was reportedly blindsided to find retired his woman was having a narration with Bezos, and the Amazon founder's purported sexy substance exchanges with Sánchez were leaked for nationalist consumption.

An lawyer for Bezos told the National Enquirer, which archetypal published the texts, that it was "widely known" that his lawsuit and Scott were "long separated." A root also told Page Six, "MacKenzie knew they were dating, the quality [Wednesday] was not a astonishment to her. Lauren was with Jeff astatine the Golden Globes [in 2019] due to the fact that they are dating." 

Bezos, Sánchez and Whitesell were each spotted chatting astatine Amazon's Golden Globes after-party that night, according to People.

"People accidental that your beingness races earlier your eyes," helium told Fast Company in 2004, a twelvemonth aft helium emerged from a chopper clang with lone a fewer cuts connected his head. "This peculiar mishap happened dilatory capable that we had a fewer seconds to contemplate it." Bezos continued, laughing heartily, "I person to say, thing highly profound flashed done my caput successful those fewer seconds. My main thought was, This is specified a silly mode to die.

"It wasn't life-changing successful immoderate large way. I've learned a reasonably tactical acquisition from it, I'm afraid. The biggest takeaway is: Avoid helicopters whenever possible! They're not arsenic reliable arsenic fixed-wing aircraft."

Sanchez, incidentally, is a helicopter aviator who owned her ain aerial filming company, Black Ops Aviation. Not lone does Bezos' $500 cardinal superyacht have a helipad, but his fiancée told WSJ. Magazine earlier this twelvemonth that he's getting his pilot's license.

"Will you defender your bosom against rejection, oregon volition you enactment erstwhile you autumn successful love?" Bezos inquired successful the commencement speech helium gave for Princeton's Class of 2010. "Will you play it safe, oregon volition you beryllium a small spot swashbuckling?"

"I had conscionable turned 30 years old, and I'd been joined for a year," Bezos recounted successful the 2010 Princeton commencement address. "I told my woman MacKenzie that I wanted to discontinue my occupation and spell bash this brainsick happening that astir apt wouldn't enactment since astir startups don't, and I wasn't definite what would hap aft that."

So successful the summertime of 1994, Bezos and his woman flew to Texas, wherever his parents lived. They told the movers to conscionable commencement driving west, that they would travel up with an nonstop destination—which, astatine the moment, they weren't definite of yet.

Jackie and Miguel Bezos (who besides goes by Mike) loaned the couple the SUV successful which MacKenzie drove them to Seattle, portion Bezos worked connected his laptop. They didn't person immoderate peculiar idiosyncratic ties to the city, but a person had recommended it—and astatine the clip online retailers didn't person to collect income taxation successful states wherever they didn't person a carnal presence. Washington was tiny and he wanted the rest of his customers astir the state to debar paying income tax. 

"I privation you to cognize however risky this is," Jeff told them, according to remarks Mike Bezos gave successful 2015 astatine the National Constitution Center successful Philadelphia, "because I privation to travel location astatine meal for Thanksgiving and I don't privation you to beryllium huffy astatine me."

According to Bloomberg, their involvement successful the institution whitethorn present beryllium worthy astir $30 billion—a 12 cardinal percent return. Bezos' younger siblings, Mark and Christina, besides purchased 30,000 shares apiece for $10,000 successful 1996; each holding could beryllium worthy $640 million.

"We were fortunate capable that we person lived overseas [they had conscionable spent 3 years successful Bogotá, Colombia] and we person saved a fewer pennies truthful we were capable to beryllium an angel investor," Mike, a erstwhile technologist astatine Exxon, said. "The remainder is history."

"My bureau was adjacent doorway to his, and each time I listened to that fabulous laugh," Scott, an English large who had done probe for Toni Morrison portion the Nobel Prize victor was writing Jazz, told Vogue. "How could you not autumn successful emotion with that laugh?"

They got engaged 3 months aft their archetypal luncheon date, past joined successful 1993 astatine the Breakers successful West Palm Beach, Fla., wherever the reception included an adult-size play country with h2o balloons.

"I deliberation my woman is resourceful, smart, brainy, and hot," Bezos besides told Vogue, "but I had the bully luck of having seen her résumé earlier I met her, truthful I knew precisely what her SATs were." (He wouldn't uncover her score.)

Amazon's infamously intense, overtime-expected, high-turnover workplace culture has been well-documented, often not flatteringly. Bezos, whose inspiration included the visionaries Thomas Edison and Walt Disney, expects his employees to abide by 14 core enactment principles: lawsuit obsession; ownership; invent and simplify; "are right, a lot" (if you cognize what you're doing, you're astir apt right); larn and beryllium curious; prosecute and make the best; importune connected the highest standards; think big; bias for enactment (go for it, don't overthink); frugality; gain trust; dive deep; person backbone, disagree and commit; and present results.

Per Stone, employees don't springiness Power Point presentations, but alternatively person to constitute six-page treatises laying retired their ideas—it fosters captious thinking, according to the boss.

"It's not casual to enactment here...but were are moving to physique thing important, thing that matters to our customers, thing that we tin each archer our grandchildren about," Bezos wrote successful a 1997 letter to shareholders. 

As helium told the Princeton people of 2010, "When it's tough, volition you springiness up, oregon volition you beryllium relentless? Will you beryllium a cynic, oregon volition you beryllium a builder? Will you beryllium clever astatine the disbursal of others, oregon volition you beryllium kind?"

His unapologetic mode of doing concern has, to enactment it precise mildly, worked for him.

"To maine Amazon is simply a communicative of a superb laminitis who personally drove the vision," Eric Schmidt, past enforcement president of Google (and an Amazon Prime member), told Brad Stone for The Everything Store. "There are astir nary amended examples...It mislaid hundreds of millions of dollars. But Jeff was very garrulous, precise smart. He's a classical method laminitis of a business, who understands each item and cares astir it much than anyone."

Incidentally, MacKenzie left a one-star review of The Everything Store connected Amazon.com nether the taxable line, "I wanted to similar this book," and called it a "lopsided and misleading representation of the radical and civilization astatine Amazon." Stone, successful response, told the New York Times, that Bezos had "approved galore interviews with existent Amazon executives and erstwhile Amazon executives" and had declined interrogation requests for himself. "Most of the readers and reviewers person been inspired by Amazon's story," Stone said. "To me, it's not an unflattering account."

Over the years, they acquired a existent property portfolio that included a gated 5.3-acre compound in the Seattle suburb of Medina reachable via the longest floating span successful the world; the South Texas ranch wherever Bezos utilized to walk summers with his grandparents, adjacent wherever his aeronautics and space-exploration institution Blue Origin is besides based; a $24 cardinal location successful Beverly Hills; four condos successful a gathering connected Manhattan's Upper West Side; and a residence successful Washington D.C. that broke a grounds for Beltway home prices when Bezos bought the erstwhile Textile Museum successful 2016 for $23 million.

They besides share three sons and a daughter. They are understandably incredibly backstage erstwhile it comes to their kids, but Bezos shared immoderate parenting insight astatine the Summit LA 17 lawsuit portion being interviewed by his brother, Mark. 

"How bash you assistance your children, what's the close thing?" helium mused. "My woman has a large saying—we fto our kids use, adjacent present they're 17 done 12, but adjacent erstwhile they were 4, we would fto them usage crisp knives. By the clip they were, I don't know, possibly 7 oregon 8, we would fto them usage definite powerfulness tools and my wife, overmuch to her credit, she has this large saying, 'I would overmuch alternatively person a kid with 9 fingers than a resourceless kid.' Which, I conscionable think, is simply a fantastic cognition astir life."

Scott besides wrote 2 novels, 2005's The Testing of Luther Albright and 2013's Traps. "Jeff is my champion reader," she said, noting that Bezos would artifact retired a large chunk of clip and work a manuscript successful 1 sitting, penning her elaborate notes.

With the deepest pockets successful the satellite travel large responsibility, and admirers and critics alike wondered for years what Bezos was readying to bash with each that dough.

In 2012, the Seattle Times reported that Amazon was a comparative lightweight connected the section philanthropy circuit, and that the United Way successful King County reported $0 successful donations from the institution successful 2011, portion different salient firm residents, including Microsoft, Nordstrom and Boeing had fixed 6- and 7-figure sums.

"Our halfway concern activities are astir apt the astir important happening we bash to contribute, arsenic good arsenic our employment successful the area," Bezos told the insubstantial successful 2011 (he didn't remark connected the 2012 report). 

Of people helium and MacKenzie person a household instauration (run by his parents) that benefits children's acquisition and they've been personally progressive successful charitable causes, donating to governmental candidates and different doling retired wealth for decades. In 2007, Bezos paid $3.98 million for 1 of lone 7 handwritten and illustrated copies of J.K. Rowling's The Tales of Beedle the Bard, with each proceeds going to Children's Voice (Rowling gave the different six to radical intimately connected to the Potterverse). They person fixed to some Democratic and Republican candidates, but their societal authorities thin progressive: successful 2012 they  gave $2.5 million to enactment an yet palmy referendum legalizing same-sex matrimony successful Washington state, which made them the biggest fiscal backers of the origin successful the country. 

The New York Times, citing assorted data, reported successful the summertime of 2017 that Bezos had personally fixed distant astir $100 million.

"Lauren is the astir generous, astir big-hearted idiosyncratic that you would ever meet," told CNN successful November. "So, she is an inspiration successful that way. She ne'er misses a birthday. The web of radical that she gives day presents to is gigantic. And that's conscionable a tiny example."

Bezos concluded his code to the Princeton grads successful 2010 by reiterating his inclination to deliberation astir however he's going to consciousness astir his beingness erstwhile looking backmost connected it from an older perch 1 day.

"I volition hazard a prediction. When you are 80 years old, and successful a quiescent infinitesimal of reflection narrating for lone yourself the astir idiosyncratic mentation of your beingness story, the telling that volition beryllium astir compact and meaningful volition beryllium the bid of choices you person made. In the end, we are our choices. Build yourself a large story."

(Originally published Jan. 11, 2019, astatine 3 a.m. PT)