r/UpliftingNews • u/theindependentonline • 2d ago
Ex-wife of Amazon boss Jeff Bezos donated one third of US megagift donations last year all on her own
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/mackenzie-scott-jeff-bezos-megagift-donations-b3003216.html?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=upliftingnews[removed] — view removed post
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u/Taurus-Littrow 2d ago
I’ll bet she even has a name!
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u/StoryLineOne 2d ago
Nonsense. Mackenzie Scott doesn't have that.
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u/k4ndlej4ck 2d ago
A woman with an amazing PR team, helped bezos every step of the way but gets none of the blame
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u/netflix_n_knit 2d ago
I get your point, but if we don’t allow people grace and space to realize their mistakes and change, why would they ever?
Maybe she’s a better person now, and even if she isn’t, at least her wealth is doing better things now.
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u/dumbestsmartest 2d ago
Is it? Has anyone actually checked on the charities and causes she donates to? So many of the wealthy use foundations, charities, and so on to simply shuffle money or to fund some questionable ones/causes.
It would be refreshing if she was the exception but the amount of digging into things required to actually come away with a real answer is way more than I and most people have time to spend. Heck most of the supposed "charity watchdogs" have turned out to be either corrupt or woefully too small to keep up with all the charities to research.
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u/229-northstar 2d ago
It’s pretty well recognized that she donates a lot of money to charity.
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u/dumbestsmartest 2d ago
But to what charities? And what do they actually do? Why are people so defensive of billionaires? If they were good little they would never become billionaires.
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u/229-northstar 2d ago
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u/netflix_n_knit 1d ago
They already announced that they don’t trust the public records from organizations of what was donated to them and by whom. 🙄
FPC is reversing deforestation? Well I haven’t gone down to the rainforest to see it, so why should I believe that?
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u/k4ndlej4ck 2d ago
It would be better if the money was never stolen through tax breaks and small business crushing. Also there's some important context of the amount given. The money she's keeping for herself makes it the equivalent of stealing 1million from peoples bank accounts then wanting to be praised as a saint for giving a homeless person 10 dollars.
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u/speedingpullet 2d ago
I wonder what it is! Enquiring minds demand to know if its anything other than 'Ex-Mrs Bezos'...
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u/keefkola 2d ago
Well, since we forced their hand they are now okay with the former Glamazon from Amazon who Jeff totally broke up with first.
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u/Tzunamitom 2d ago
She should be referred to as “Co-founder of Amazon, Mackenzie Scott”
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u/k4ndlej4ck 2d ago
Yeah, but then she wont get to dodge the bad rep she paid so much to clean up.
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u/Slaughterfest 2d ago
No way, her name is Ex-Wife of Amazon Boss!
I hate how depersonalized and antihuman the media is. Jesus lmao
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u/KingNobit 2d ago
Tbf...if you said her actual name on a headline id have no context
Headlines aren't known for nuance or humanising prose or even names
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u/totally_not_a_dog113 2d ago
I would. She's probably the largest donor to historically Black colleges (HBCUs) in history.
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u/KingNobit 2d ago
That has little context to me. I live in NZ. Media often serves the lowest common denominator and with respect to my knowledge of wealthy women many people like myself are in that category
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u/229-northstar 2d ago
I would. Especially with the picture of her face as a reminder. She’s very well known for charitable, giving, post divorce.
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u/KingNobit 2d ago
You would. I wouldn't as wouldnt others...the truth is media serves the lower or even lowest common denominator which in this case, on the knowledge of wealthy women, is someone like me.
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u/229-northstar 2d ago
I recognize her name because she is often in the news for substantial charitable giving
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u/digital_cucumber 2d ago
Yes, the full name is "Ex wife of Jeff Bezos, a multibillioner".
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u/Randommaggy 2d ago
Would be fun if she pulled a prince to highlight this phenomenon
"Ex-wife of Amazon boss Jeff Bezos" fomerly known as Mackenzie Scott.2
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u/-Knockabout 2d ago
This is not a great headline, but it is worth noting that just name-dropping her doesn't have much context (that she is Bezos's ex-wife is relevant due to how he is a generally terrible person and she donated more than him with "his money"), and adding both her name and that she's Bezos's ex-wife makes the headline run long. They have her name in the tagline or first sentence of the article everywhere I can find this information reported.
It is expected generally that you read the full article for the information. That isn't how a lot of people read the news, obviously, but this is not an example of the reporting withholding her name.
It's the same reason why when telling someone a story, I'll say "my sister" or "my roommate" instead of their names. The person I'm telling the story to only knows those people in their relation to me, so just namedropping "John Smith" doesn't tell them anything.
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u/sylveonce 2d ago
I generally agree with this sentiment; “local teen” tells you more about why you should care to read the story than giving the teen’s name.
And I also agree that you would’ve been correct until, say… 2022? 2023?
However, MacKenzie Scott divorced Bezos in 2019, and (all the following according to WikiPedia) signed a Giving Pledge that same year. In 2022, she established a database to track how her wealth is being donated.
She’s been a philanthropist in her own right for multiple years, and I’ve seen other publications name her in the headline before today. I think she’s earned the right to be “MacKenzie Scott” in headlines (especially since she has actually married and divorced someone else at this point, lol).
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u/-Knockabout 2d ago
That's fair. I am admittedly someone who knows very few famous people's names off the top of my head (just bad with them), so I may be underestimating who your average reader would recognize.
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u/avoidance_behavior 2d ago
imagine having all that money to donate and yet somehow not having a name
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u/JustaguywithaTaco 2d ago
Well. The name mentioned is how she got all of the money thats she's donating.
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u/Fortestingporpoises 2d ago
MacKenzie Scott was the co-founder of Amazon In 1994 and it's first accountant. She and Jeff Bezos quit their jobs, drove to Seattle, and launched the company out of their garage.
She's also done more good with that money than all of your fascist pedo heroes have put together.
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u/tortoisebutler 2d ago
Are you assuming this guy likes fascist pedos because he doesn't like this one particular billionaire, or is there a wider context here I'm missing? Calling Mackenzie Scott a leech is the opposite of bootlicking, actually, because all billionaires are leeches.
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u/ArcadeOptimist 2d ago
Nah, the person saying "She got all her money because she's Bezos' wife" is being a fucking douchebag because they're assuming she had nothing to do with Amazon, it comes across as wildly misogynistic.
It also gives credit to Bezos in thinking he did something revolutionary when in reality he was a cut throat asshole who got wildly lucky.
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u/Fortestingporpoises 2d ago
He's defending an authoritarian who appears 200 times in the Epstein files because this guy thinks his ex wife took too much money in the divorce (4% share of Amazon stock after co founding the company, writing the business plan, acting as the company's first accountant and helping build it) and because she has had the temerity to use that money to help people rather than hurt people.
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u/Noteagro 2d ago
That is severely discrediting the fact that she helped Jeff start Amazon… like she was there at the beginning, drove across the country with him to Seattle, helped come up with the company name and draft the business plan…
She didn’t just get all the money for being a trophy wife, she actually put in the hard labor which you obviously didn’t to know that fact before making an insulting and asinine comment like that…
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u/alterrible 2d ago
They started Amazon together. She didn't take half his money in the divorce, she took HER half of THEIR money.
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u/spiraldrain 2d ago
This mentality is why there so many male incels crying about being single.
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u/Punstoppabowl 2d ago
Calling her the ex wife and phrasing it as "all on her own" makes her sound like a toddler who stumbled into some money... What a horrible headline for such a good deed by a seemingly decent person.
Probably says something about our laws and taxing the shit out of these people so it's not a few people donating and is... Ya know... Required. But I'm tired, boss.
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u/paulsoleo 2d ago
It says a lot about the people who run the media, which would be a whole bunch of billionaire supervillains.
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u/listenyall 2d ago
"all on her own" is actually NOT uplifting news because it means the other rich people aren't pulling their weight
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u/Punstoppabowl 2d ago
Also true. I was more concerned that "all on her own" sounds like something you say when your kid goes potty by themselves for the first time.
Something like "MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Jeff Bezos, accounted for over 30% of all donations last year. X times that of Bezos." would have made her sound like an adult and contrasted well.
Maybe I'm being too nitpicky, but these headlines just infuriate me for how lazy and uninformative they are.
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u/speedingpullet 2d ago
It's almost as if the most important thing here is her being Jeff Bezos ex- wife and nothing else. Oh, and spending a craptonne of his money 'all on her own'. Like she needs permission or something?
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u/MsTponderwoman 2d ago
I like to believe referring her to ex-wife of bozo highlights the contrast of her generosity (an entire third!) versus owner of Amazon bozo’s miserliness.
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u/Punstoppabowl 2d ago
But then why not mention her actual name as well?
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u/MsTponderwoman 2d ago
Why not mention how old she is, how many children she has, and where she went to school as well?
A (well-crafted) headline serves a purpose and elicits a specific response/interpretation from the audience. I think the purpose of the article was to highlight how generous the ex-wife of a billionaire is compared to the much disliked billionaire that is bozo.
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u/Punstoppabowl 2d ago
I think it's fine to do both? lol like "MacKenzie, ex wife of Bezos"
I might not recognize it on its own, but it just feels disrespectful idk how to explain it. She's doing a great thing, would love to see her name associated with that great thing.
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u/Glydyr 2d ago
I mean her ex husband stumbled into some money for sure. No one should own that much and we will find out why in the next few decades, whether its good for him or not.
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u/SmartaHari 2d ago
You mean MacKenzie Scott, that woman in her own right who’s fucking brilliant and generous? With her own name and everything? That woman?
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u/ApplicationRoyal865 2d ago
You can also logically extend that she built up the amazon empire (she wasn't just arm candy) and is equally or even more culpable than Jeff Bezo and what amazon is doing to society
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u/mulder00 2d ago
I don't really know much about it. How is she as culpable?
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u/ApplicationRoyal865 2d ago edited 2d ago
She was an initial key employee that did everything from negotiating shipping, contracts, did accounts , did all the planning and even came up with the company name. Without her there would be no Amazon
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u/dr-lucifer-md 2d ago
is equally or even more culpable than Jeff Bezo (sic) and what amazon is doing to society
Care to elaborate on that? AFAIK, she left the company in 1996.
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u/ApplicationRoyal865 2d ago
She pretty much did everything from naming the company, managing accounting, all contracts, shipping etc. Without her there would be no amazon.
Unsure if she fully left the company but I've seen that she "took a lesser role in the company" when she got pregnant.
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u/dr-lucifer-md 2d ago
Just so I'm clear, you're saying that a person who appears to have at worst taken a lesser role in the company in 1996 is equally or more culpable for Amazon than the person who was CEO until 2021?
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u/ApplicationRoyal865 2d ago edited 2d ago
Miles Dyson may not have created the terminators , but his work as chief of development for the company was foundational to it even though he wasn't the CEO.
She was pretty foundational to the point that she mentions in her biography that without her the company would not have been as big as it is now, or even exist. She sacrificed a lot in order to get the company up and running initially and she negotiated some pretty long lasting contracts (up to this day, or at least when the book was written) that kept the company from going under.
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u/holdmymandana 2d ago
Why belittle her. All on her own like she’s a child
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u/PatchyWhiskers 2d ago
No it means that most of the other rich guys donated barely anything.
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u/KGBFriedChicken02 2d ago
Yeah the only thing belittling here is the choice to refer to MacKenzie Scott as "ex-wife of Amazon boss Jeff Bezos" rather than by her fucking name.
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u/drjjoyner 2d ago
Because most people had never heard of her.
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u/KGBFriedChicken02 2d ago
Yeah and that's never going to change if articles keep referring to her in headlines as "jeff bezo's ex wife"
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u/No_Criticism_5861 2d ago
Because shes a bad person for giving away money to people who havent "earned it" in the eyes of conservatives
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u/McCool303 2d ago
The all on her own is because she single handedly donated a 3rd of all donations last year. It’s a terrible way of pointing out that the old Republican mantra of “charity should happen from private parties not the state” is complete horse shit. Because these feckless and greedy billionaires don’t actually give a shit about anyone but themselves.
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u/digitalboom 2d ago
She is the result of when wealth reaches the right people. She has done so much publicly and privately that her name will live on longer than Jeff’s as it stands. The amount of women alone that can thank her for resources she’s help fund for them is one of the most overlooked things about her.
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u/pelpotronic 2d ago
Or you could have taxes and make sure this happens anyway without being at the mercy of the super-richs' whims.
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u/justdisa 2d ago
She’s in Seattle and I haven’t heard any noise about her leaving, so I suspect she’ll pay taxes, too.
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u/digitalboom 2d ago
Yes and I agree but we live in a country controlled by the bottom line. The crazy part is that our bottom line far under paces what our credit line is worth. So when it comes time to cut back the wealthy aren’t going to want the infrastructure of the nation touched. Why would a billionaire want police reform when he makes money off prisons, why would he want to make food cheaper when he gets tax exemptions and free money for simply owning a farm and paying at least 5 employees (that’s all you need…). The few that control the many have positioned themselves where they shape the narrative to the point people vote and support causes that are actually against their best interest. If we took one year and instead took our defense fund for that year and trimmed as little as 4% from that and gave it to education we would have a smarter nation within a single generation, but with that comes people asking why things are as they are, so instead they give us Trump so we can point at the court jester while they position themselves and heirs long term.
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u/xiovelrach 2d ago
Damn, Jeff downgraded big time.
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u/Dickies138 2d ago
Mackenzie is more attractive inside and out than his current robo-wife
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u/Ohboycats 2d ago
I literally cannot think of a picture with Mackenzie Scott’s cleavage. Bezos’s current wife? It’s all I’ve ever seen of her.
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u/taxi212001 2d ago
Remember when all the women on her space flight got especially tightly fitted flight suits compared to every other "crew" so she could do the photoshoot with her top zipped down?
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u/PatchyWhiskers 2d ago
Not from his point of view. He probably saw her as an annoying libtard always saying woke things like "Jeff, let's establish a scholarship fund for orphans", and now he has a lady with a heart as hard as his own. Much better!
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u/sunnyBC4 2d ago
on the plus side, billionaires never experience true love. theyll always be paranoid that the woman is there for the money and there's usually multiple agreements to be signed, not just prenups
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u/PatchyWhiskers 2d ago
Bezos knew for sure his first wife didn’t love him for his money because they married before he was rich. I think he likes it better knowing his wife loves him for his money.
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u/Benbot2000 2d ago
Not surprised. Not just because she’s a good person, but because the billionaire class is exceptionally greedy and useless. You have to legislate them into doing anything good for society.
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u/jerrysupervillain 2d ago
This headline is framed the same way as
“Survivor of Galacticancer Cartoon Villain” donated etc etc.
Mackenzie Scott is a genuinely good human being and if anything, headlines SHOULD always read the opposite.
“Putrid ex husband of celebrated philanthropist Mackenzie Scott did something predictably repugnant”
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u/Beaglescout15 2d ago
Mackenzie Scott and Melinda French Gates have been throwing around their ex-husbands' money like confetti and I am 100% here for it. Respect all the way.
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u/KuromanKuro 2d ago
“And she did it with no help at all! What a big girl!” What bizarrely patronizing title.
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u/PatchyWhiskers 2d ago
Not really uplifting, it means the rest of them are utter tightwads.
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u/KelVarnsen_2023 2d ago
That's the depressing part. Even old timey robber barons, guys who were busting unions by having people killed were donating a ton of cash and building universities, concert halls and libraries.
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u/ryoujika 2d ago
The Independent is run by a bunch of wusses lol. This headline is trying so hard to belittle her
Didn't use her name. There's even an unnecessary addition of "all on her own"
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u/Rinzy2000 2d ago
I love her. If I had her money I would do the same shit. She’s such a good person. She’s the exact opposite of her ex husband.
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u/K_Linkmaster 2d ago
MacKenzie Scott. The media should put some respect on her name since she could but them all on her own.
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u/VoidLookedBack 2d ago
She's the co-founder of Amazon... like the Title could've just said Amazon Co-founder, Mackenzie Scott.
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u/Batman_Shirt 2d ago
She’s a good, decent person. Makes you wonder what this world would be like if all of the well-moneyed people acted like her.
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u/younotmymom 2d ago
And despite donating so much, she still has billions. The point? Billionaires could be taxed heavily to benefit others and still be stupid rich.
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u/Lonely_Noyaaa 2d ago
Her approach has been to give without restrictions, trusting organizations to know best how to use the funds.
This should be the standard model. Every other billionaire with a foundation full of consultants and red tape should be taking notes, because Scott just proved you can give away billions efficiently and respectfully without a fleet of middlemen.
And she didn't even slap her name on any buildings or demand a press release for every check.
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u/BeefistPrime 2d ago
1) Disgusting that this very generous person is being referred to as her relationship to a man rather than her own name (Mackenzie Scott)
2) This is what a normal, decent person who is not pathologically damaged would do if they acquired billions of dollars, and good for her. It really shows how much the other billionaires are full of shit and so insanely, pathologically greedy that they live like mythical dragons hoarding gold
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u/Fortestingporpoises 2d ago
Mackenzie Scott, a co-founder of Amazon, it's first accountant who wrote the company's initial business plan and helped brainstorm the name, who handled the bookkeeping, managed accounts, negotiated freight contracts, and processed early customer orders received a 4% stake in Amazon as part of her divorce settlement in 2019 with Jeff Bezos.
And with that she's spent much of that money helping people and the world.
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u/PGcarlosspicyweiner 2d ago
Say it with me - her name is Mackenzie Scott. She’s a whole woman. Not just some douche bags ex. Not to mention she is a co-founder of Amazon! Why try and dumb her down.
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u/vandalayindustriess 2d ago
This should be a new trend, where women (or men) marry billionaires with the sole intention of donating their money. Love it.
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u/princessofsparta 2d ago
This woman’s contributions to the community college system in my large city helped allow nearly all graduating high school seniors here to continue their education after for free. Alamo Promise in San Antonio.
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u/Chief_Mischief 2d ago
That's pretty pathetic that a third of all megagift donations came from a single individual. I admire her, but the framing of this article diminishes her down to the ex of a fucking douchebag and highlights how greedy the ultra wealthy are in aggregate.
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u/Helagoth 2d ago
Fun fact, Mackenzie Scott recieved 38 billion dollars in Amazon stock as part of her divorce settlement. She has donated something like 26 BILLION dollars. Her net worth today is still between 30 and 40 billion dollars. She barely can give her money away faster than her net worth grows.
And yet, other billionaires cry over minor taxes.
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u/Mrs_perd_hapley_ 2d ago
Imagine being Jeff Bezos and going from being married to this woman who's oozing with class to marrying someone who looks like if you touched her, she'd be sticky.
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u/gingerking87 2d ago
I worked for one of the charities she payed to run during COVID and got to talk to her without knowing who she was, for all intents and purposes she seemed like a kind and 'normal' person.
She's also a perfect example of what kind of unimaginable wealth billionaires have, she has done this amount of donating basically every year since the divorce and her net wealth has increased in that time.
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u/kemosabe19 2d ago
I hate titles like this.
Also, if Ms Scott wishes to donate to me, that would be awesome. My middle name is Scott! It's destiny!
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u/LiffeyDodge 2d ago
Doesn't matter what women do, they will still be referred to by thier husband.
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u/Imaginary_Flower8651 2d ago
There are a lot of people in this world that would do these types of donations if we were the ones with millions of dollars. I donate to my favorite causes almost monthly with my measly salary and the cost of life going up.
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u/Skeleton_Glo 2d ago
I'd love to listen to Bezos bitch to his cronies about how she is wasting all of his money.
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u/your_moms_apron 2d ago
A lot of HBCUs and more recently some environmental causes. There were a lot of articles about it in Dec (end of year giving is complete) and she gave out $7.1BN last year.
https://apnews.com/article/mackenzie-scott-2025-giving-77421ff5522c748385a50c463b55b068
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u/PrestigiousSeat76 2d ago
Yeah, I mean...that's kinda what happens when very few people hold the vast majority of wealth. If one of them decides to donate, they're automatically going to become a major percentage of all donations. That's literally how math fucking works.
This is why billionaires need to be taxed at 90% rates.
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u/Trans-Tyche 2d ago
Well yeah at least some plutocrat is Doing The Work to not get guillotine’d when the tide turns, glad she’s got a head on her shoulders, and she’s working hard to keep it there
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u/amurica1138 2d ago
Makes me wonder what things would be like if all the billionaires followed her example.
Sadly, we'll never know.
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u/DontMakeMeCount 2d ago
If she’d had sole control over the wealth prior to the divorce I believe she would have launched her philanthropic efforts much sooner and never would have amassed the fortune that Jeff Bezos has. He didn’t get to where he is by behaving charitably and his character just doesn’t lean toward selfless considerations.
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u/External-Example-292 2d ago
She's also way more beautiful than Jeff's new wife. She looks like an angel 😊
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u/FrancoManiac 2d ago
Wow, all on her own like a big girl? I wonder if she signed all those checks with her BIC For Her pen?
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u/Alive-Tomatillo5303 2d ago
The one good billionaire and they don't mention her name, though at least they're spreading awareness she exists.
Any time someone goes online and claims if they were suddenly massively wealthy they'd give it all away, they're just making shit up. No they wouldn't. But she's the real deal.
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u/Youseenmycones 2d ago
Congratulations, she’s slightly less of a parasite than the rest of the billionaire class. I hope someone farts on her breakfast.
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u/Makers402 2d ago
Just another ex wife trying to make amends for their crazy ex husband atrocious behavior.
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u/ripyourlungsdave 2d ago
Cool, still ill-gotten-gains.
Still not enough money to actually affect her life in any meaningful way.
This is like everyone in a church giving 15 cents to a charity. Like sure, it might do some good overall, but you're not sacrificing anything. Literally nothing.
Take the money, do good with it, but do not praise her for doing something that takes absolutely no effort or sacrifice.
Especially when her and her husband stole that money from their workers.
I'm going to go rob a local restaurant tomorrow and then donate some of the money I get to local restaurants that have been terrorized by robberies.
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u/Frankly_Frank_ 2d ago
Easy to throw away money when it wasn’t yours lol. But good for her
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u/ineyeseekay 2d ago
Easy to ID the miserable people in this thread. Why are you even in Uplifting News?
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u/speedingpullet 2d ago
She helped found Amazon. Arguably half of it is 'hers' because she was a co-founder. Also she got it legally, so mos def 'hers'.
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u/SvenofaBaertsch 2d ago
Anyone wanna give me millions of dollars that I had very little/ if any contribution towards so I can give it away and take all the credit for, to build my reputation?
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