MacKenzie Scott, the novelist and billionaire philanthropist who was formerly married to the Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, has filed for divorce from her second husband.
Citing court records, the New York Times reported that Scott filed for divorce from Dan Jewett in Washington state on Monday.
Scott divorced Bezos, one of the world’s richest men, in 2019, amid tabloid reporting about his relationship with a TV host. Scott received $38bn.
She promised to donate her entire fortune to charity, signing on to the Giving Pledge, an initiative under which the super rich can commit to philanthropic endeavour.
Scott has made sizable gifts to aid good causes including providing affordable housing.
Jewett was a science teacher at a Seattle private school to which Scott and Bezos sent their children. The couple married in March last year.
Describing Jewett to the Times, a friend said he was “earnest, not very edgy … the perfect person to end up with this money to give away – no sense of greed at all”.
In a letter published by the Giving Pledge, Jewett said he was “grateful for the exceptional privilege it will be to partner in giving away assets with the potential to do so much good when shared”.
He added: “In a stroke of happy coincidence, I am married to one of the most generous and kind people I know, and joining her in a commitment to pass on an enormous financial wealth to serve others.”
On Wednesday, the Times noted that Jewett’s letter no longer appears on the Giving Pledge page for Scott. The paper also noted that “without fanfare, his name was recently edited out of a Medium post Ms Scott had written last year about their gifts”, as well as Scott’s Amazon page.
In her letter on the Giving Pledge website, Scott writes: “We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand.
“In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share.”