MacKenzie Scott, the philanthropist formerly married to Jeff Bezos, has married again following her 2019 divorce from the Amazon.com Inc. founder, according to media reports.
Scott, one of the world’s wealthiest women, has married Dan Jewett, a science teacher at a Seattle private school.
Scott is the world's 22nd richest person—courtesy of her divorce from the world’s richest person Amazon founder Jeff Bezos—has found love again and has married Seattle science teacher Dan Jewett.
Scott, who is worth $53 billion according to Forbes, signed the Giving Pledge—a promise to give away half her fortune to charity in her lifetime—when her divorce with Bezos was finalized in 2019.
She’s been an active philanthropist in the two years since, notably giving away $4 billion in the course of four months to underserved communities, including community colleges and historically Black colleges and universities.
Fittingly, it is through the Giving Pledge that news of Scott’s marriage emerged.
“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,” Jewett wrote in a Giving Pledge statement posted March 6. Jewett is joining Scott in her charitable pledge.
“It is strange to be writing a letter indicating I plan to give away the majority of my wealth during my lifetime, as I have never sought to gather the kind of wealth required to feel like saying such a thing would have a particular meaning,” he wrote, noting that he has been a teacher for the “majority” of his life.
The couple apparently met at the Lakeside School, a private school that Scott’s children attend (and where Bill Gates went) and where Jewett was a chemistry teacher. His profile is no longer on the school’s website.
“Dan is such a great guy, and I am happy and excited for the both of them,” Jeff Bezos was quoted by Forbes.
Scott’s most recent public remarks were around her $4.1 billion in donations last year.
“Though I’m far from completing my pledge, this year of giving began with exposure to leaders from historically marginalized groups fighting inequities, and ended with exposure to thousands of organizations working to alleviate suffering for those hardest hit by the pandemic,” she wrote in December.
Altogether, Scott’s announced gifts to charitable and nonprofit groups in 2020 totalled $5.8 billion.
Scott and Bezos, both Princeton University graduates, met while working at a hedge fund in New York. She helped him start Amazon in 1994, and is the author of two novels. Her Amazon author page now says that she “lives in Seattle with her four children and her husband, Dan.”
At the time of their 2019 divorce, after 25 years of marriage, Bezos was the wealthiest person in the world, with his stake of more than 16% of Amazon. Scott received 4% of Amazon’s shares as part of their divorce settlement, though Bezos kept voting rights for those shares.