Congrats On The Wedding Jeff Bezos! Here's How Rich You'd Be If You'd Never Gotten Divorced Though :)

As you probably heard, Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez got married last night on a private island called San Giorgio Maggiore, just off the coast of Venice, Italy. Roughly 200 of the world's most famous and powerful people flew in – on an estimated 50 private jets – to celebrate the couple during a multi-day, no-expense-spared affair.

Lauren is a former local news anchor and weather reporter who reinvented herself as a helicopter pilot and aviation entrepreneur. Jeff, of course, is the founder of Amazon.com and one of the wealthiest people in modern history.

This is the second marriage for both. Lauren was previously married to talent agent Patrick Whitesell, with whom she shares two children. Their divorce was finalized in 2019, about a year after rumors surfaced that she had begun a relationship with Jeff. She also has a son with former NFL player Tony Gonzalez.

Jeff's first marriage was to MacKenzie Scott. The two were married from 1993 to 2019 and have three sons and an adopted daughter. During those 26 years, MacKenzie stood by Jeff's side as he built Amazon from a scrappy online bookstore into a tech behemoth. At the time of their divorce, Jeff was the undisputed richest person in the world, with a net worth of $150 billion.

Unfortunately, a lot has changed since 2019 in the upper echelon of the world's wealth rankings. Jeff's current $244 billion fortune isn't enough to make him the richest person alive. Or even the second richest. Get out your tiniest violin—because poor Jeff is currently the third richest person in the world, behind Mark Zuckerberg ($258 billion) and Elon Musk ($367 billion).

However. Had Jeff never gotten divorced and handed over the most expensive divorce settlement in human history, today he would be the world's #1 richest person by a comfortable margin.

So just how much richer would he be?

Let's break it down.

(Photo by MARCO BERTORELLO/AFP via Getty Images)

What Could Have Been

When Jeff and MacKenzie announced their divorce in January 2019, his net worth was estimated at $150 billion, the vast majority of which came from his 16% ownership stake in Amazon. At the time, Amazon had a market cap of about $950 billion, and Jeff's shares alone accounted for more than $120 billion of his fortune.

A few months later, in April 2019, the couple finalized their divorce. Jeff kept 75% of their shared Amazon stock, and MacKenzie received the other 25%—a 4% stake in the company—valued at roughly $38 billion at the time. That instantly made her one of the richest women in the world. And it instantly shaved tens of billions off Jeff's net worth.

Since then, Jeff has also sold tens of billions of dollars worth of Amazon stock to fund various ventures, most notably his space company Blue Origin. As of today, Jeff owns approximately 9% of Amazon, down from the 16% he held pre-divorce.

So let's fast-forward to the present.

Amazon's market cap is now roughly $2.4 trillion. That means:

• Jeff's current 9% stake is worth about $216 billion
• Add another $28 billion or so in cash and other assets, and you get his estimated net worth of $244 billion

But if he had never gotten divorced, and if he had never sold a single share, he'd likely still own 16% of Amazon. That stake today would be worth…

$384 billion

That's based on today's market cap of roughly $2.4 trillion. If you went back to January 31, 2025, when Amazon's market cap hit an all-time high of $2.5 trillion, Jeff's former stake would have been worth…

$400 billion

Jeff and Mackenzie (Getty)

Love Wins… But At What Cost???

Now, to be clear: Jeff Bezos doesn't appear to be hurting. He's still worth $244 billion. He still owns one of the most valuable companies on Earth. He just got married on a private Italian island surrounded by celebrities, yachts, and enough champagne to flood the canals of Venice. By all accounts, he's living exactly the life he wants.

But it's hard to get over the fact that getting divorced cost Jeff Bezos $140 billion at today's figures, or $156 billion at the all-time high numbers. Either way, it's roughly his ENTIRE net worth at the time of the divorce. He essentially gave up a fortune that, on its own today, would be the 10th or 9th largest on the planet.

Or think about it like this. Let's say we had a time machine and we went back to 2018. And let's say we attended the same party where Jeff and Lauren first crossed paths. And let's say we pulled Jeff aside and explained to him that he had three options:

• Door #1: Stay married and keep $140 billion. 
• Door #2: Stay married and spend $140 billion on whatever you want. Set it on fire. Maybe donate a few billion, but for the most part, just set $140 billion on fire. 
• Door #3: Pursue a relationship with Lauren. Have the most expensive divorce in history and watch $140 billion evaporate in thin air. But a few years from now, be married to Lauren.

If he believed you were being 100% serious and had seen the future, which door do you reallllllly think he would choose? Which door would you choose?

Anyways. Congrats to Jeff and Lauren!

Oh, one more thing…

MacKenzie's Net Worth

As I type this article, MacKenzie Scott's net worth is $40 billion. A natural question might be: Why is she not worth $140 billion?

Well, as a reminder, after her 2019 divorce from Jeff, MacKenzie walked away with a 4% stake in Amazon, worth around $38 billion at the time.

Over the past several years, she has sold or donated a substantial portion of her shares, reducing her Amazon stake to about 1.3%. The proceeds have funded an unprecedented philanthropic campaign: she's donated more than $17 billion to over 2,000 organizations, making her one of the most active philanthropists in modern history. And while that has been truly impressive, keep in mind that had she simply held onto her 4% stake, today she'd be worth around $96 billion.

And as for the difference between $140 billion and $96 billion, that's explained by Jeff's stock sales over the years.