[News Inside] Divorced Woman Named Forbes' Most Influential Woman

Mackenzie Scott

▲Mackenzie Scott [Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] Ranked No. 1 on Forbes' list of the '100 Most Influential Women in the World in 2021.'

The protagonist is none other than MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Jeff Bezos, founder of the U.S. e-commerce company Amazon.

She surpassed former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who had held the No. 1 spot as the world's most influential woman for 10 consecutive years, to claim the top position.

MacKenzie Scott, who has earned nicknames such as 'Divorce of the Century' and 'Billionaire Divorcee,' has many facets.

Born in 1970 in San Francisco, California, Scott majored in English literature at Princeton University. In the early 1990s, she met Bezos at the same hedge fund company where Bezos was an interviewer and Scott was an interviewee. They fell in love and married in 1993.

The year after their marriage, they founded Amazon.com. A famous anecdote tells that while moving from New York to Seattle to start the company, MacKenzie drove while Bezos wrote the business plan on his laptop. MacKenzie was responsible for book orders, shipping, and accounting in Amazon.com's early days.

She is also a mother who adopted a Chinese girl. Bezos and Scott have three sons. However, the couple, who wanted a daughter more than anyone else, personally visited China in 2006 to adopt a girl through an introduction from an acquaintance. They adopted a girl from Hunan Province and have cherished her for over 10 years. Notably, Bezos's affection for his daughter is exceptional; it is said he bought a small island so she could use it during school vacations. Bezos himself was raised between his Cuban immigrant stepfather Miguel Baike Bezos and his biological mother from the age of four, and is known to have a special bond with his adopted daughter. In the U.S., adopted children are not discriminated against in inheritance, so all four children are expected to inherit equally.

Scott also made headlines for her enormous divorce settlement. At the time of the divorce in 2019, she received 4% of Amazon shares, making her the second-largest shareholder after Bezos.

In 2020 alone, MacKenzie donated $5.8 billion, rising as a 'philanthropy queen.' Upon her 2019 divorce, Scott pledged to donate more than half of her wealth to the Giving Pledge, a charitable organization founded in 2010 by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates. Through the online platform Medium, Scott announced donations to 116 civic organizations working on racial equality, economic mobility, gender equality, public health, and environmental protection. In her article revealing her donations, she used the name 'MacKenzie Scott,' which she adopted after her divorce, rather than 'MacKenzie Bezos'; this name is said to be taken from her grandfather's name.

Earlier this year, MacKenzie attracted attention by remarrying an ordinary teacher. Her new spouse is a science teacher at the school attended by her children with Bezos, and they initially met as a parent and teacher.

Scott is currently active as a novelist as well.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.