Jeff Bezos announced yesterday that he and his wife, MacKenzie S. Tuttle, were getting a divorce.
On Twitter, Bezos shared a joint statement that they are divorcing after a longer period of “loving exploration” and doing a trial separation. He also noted that he and MacKenzie are going to continue being friends.
The statement doesn’t reveal why the couple got divorced, but he did note that they had been married for 25 years and they would do it all over again — even if they knew it would lead to them splitting.
The pair have four children together, three sons and an adopted daughter.
At first glance, it doesn’t appear to anything dramatic caused Jeff Bezos and his wife to divorce. Given that they went through a trial separation, it’s possible that they simply grew apart or started to have different interests that simply drove a wedge between them.
There are reports that Bezos has been dating Lauren Sanchez, the wife of his friend Patrick Whitesell’s wife Lauren Sanchez. However, since he and MacKenzie were going through a trial separation, it’s possible that he wasn’t in fact cheating on his wife in any way.
As Bezos writes in his divorce statement, he and MacKenzie look forward to sharing their futures as parents, friends, and partners in ventures and projects. Based on that statement, it doesn’t sound like there’s bad blood between them. There are no reports about whether MacKenzie has met someone new during the trial separation.
According to CNN, Jeff and MacKenzie last year announced that they planned to commit $2 billion to fund existing nonprofits that help homeless families. They also pledged to create a network of preschools in low-income communities to give children the option of going to daycare.
Jeff Bezos has said nothing about how his massive fortune will play a role in his divorce. Since he is notoriously private about his personal life, including his children, it’s unlikely that he will start discussing his personal finances in the middle of his divorce.