MacKenzie Bezos

MacKenzie Bezos (born 1970) is a United States novelist and philantropist. She holds a BA in English from Princeton University, and is the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. After the couple’s divorce in 2019, her net worth was $38 billion.

MacKenzie Bezos’ debut novel “The Testing of Luther Albright” was published in 2005 to a generally positive reception, and it won a 2006 American Book Award. Her second novel “Traps” followed in 2013.

Short facts about MacKenzie Bezos

Original name: MacKenzie S. Tuttle

Married name: MacKenzie S. Bezoz

Born: 7 April, 1970, in San Francisco, California, USA

Alma mater: Princeton University (BA)

Spouse: Jeff Bezos (married 1993, divorced 2019)

Children: 4

Philantrophy

During their long marriage, MacKenzie and her husband made substantial contributions to charitable causes, including donations to their alma mater Princeton University.

Individually, MacKenzie Bezos is chiefly known for her support of Bystander Revolution, the anti-bullying organization that she founded in 2014, and for which she is the executive director.

The Giving Pledge

In April 2019, MacKenzie Bezos announced on Twitter that she had reache a $35 billion divorce settlement. The following month, she signed The Giving Pledge.

At The Giving Pledge site, MacKenzie Bezos is making the following statement:

“There are lots of resources each of us can pull from our safes to share with others — time, attention, knowledge, patience, creativity, talent, effort, humor, compassion. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money to share. My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care. But I won’t wait. And I will keep at it until the safe is empty.”

Bystander Revolution

Bystander Revolution is an anti-bullying organization that offers advice about how individuals can defuse bullying. The organization was founded in Seattle, Washington, USA in 2014 by MacKenzie Bezos, and is owned by Bystander Revolution, LLC.

The Bystander Revolution provides individuals, including educators, with free multimedia lessons on anti-bullying. The website is also home to crowdsourced suggested actions bystanders can take when they encounter bullying. This is based on the idea that peer-to-peer advice can be especially helpful.

In addition to this, there are hundreds of unscripted videos on the site where experts, students, celebrities, and others share their personal experiences with bullying.

Examples of organizations that work together with Bystander Revolution are PACER’s National Bullying Prevention center, Common Sense Media, No Bully, and MTV’s Look Different.

About MacKenzie Bezos née Tuttle

MacKenzie S. Tuttle was born in San Fransciso, California in 1970. Her father was a financial planner and her mother a homemaker.

After graduating from Hotchkiss School, a college preparatory bording school in Connecticut, Tuttle continued to Princeton University where she recieved her bachelor’s degree in English with highest honors in 1992. One of her teachers at Princeton was Toni Morrison.

In 1992, Tuttle worked for Jeff Bezos at the New York City hedge fund D.E. Shaw. They married in 1993 and moved to Seattle the following year.

MacKenzie and Jeff Bezos have four children together: three sons and one daughter. The daugher is adopted from China.