MacKenzie Scott donates $1.7bn of her wealth since split with Jeff Bezos

Ex-wife of Amazon CEO pledged to donate her fortunes last year

The former wife of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has donated almost $2 billion (£1.5 bn) to good causes since her divorce, she has said.

In a blog post on Tuesday, MacKenzie Scott said she donated $1.7 billion (£1.3 bn) of her wealth in the past year to causes including racial equality, LGBT+ rights, public health and climate change.

Ms Scott, who was previously known as MacKenzie Bezos, also announced her new last name, which she said was taken from her middle name.

It comes after Ms Scott last year committed to donating the majority of her fortune after her split from the world’s richest man, Mr Bezos, who left her with a 4 per cent stake in Amazon.

“Like many, I watched the first half of 2020 with a mixture of heartbreak and horror,” she wrote in a post on Medium, outlining her donations.

“I began work to complete my pledge with the belief that my life had yielded two assets that could be of particular value to others,” she wrote..

“The money these systems helped deliver to me, and a conviction that people who have experience with inequities are the ones best equipped to design solutions,” she added.

Announcing her commitment last year, she told The Giving Pledge campaign that she had “a disproportionate amount of money to share”.

According to The Giving Pledge, more than 200 wealthy individuals and families have committed to donating most of their wealth to philanthropic causes.

At the time of the divorce, Ms Scott’s stake was worth about $36 billion (£27 bn).

Her fortune has grown to over $60 billion (£46.3 bn) as Amazon’s share price increased this year.

Reports last week revealed that Mr Bezos’s had broken his own personal net worth record after his fortune passed $171 billion (£132 bn), amid a boom in sales during the Covid-19 pandemic.