World’s richest man agrees $35bn divorce with wife

The world’s richest man, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and his wife MacKenzie have agreed a record-breaking divorce settlement of at least $35bn (£27bn). Ms Bezos keeps a four per cent stake in the online retail giant, worth $35.6bn on its own.

Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos in Seattle in 1994, a year after the couple married, and Ms Bezos was one of its first employees. Both parties tweeted positive comments about the other in the wake of the announced settlement. The two did not provide any further financial details about the settlement.

The Amazon shares alone will make Ms Bezos the world’s third-richest woman while Jeff will remain the world’s richest person, according to Forbes. Jeff Bezos, 55, and MacKenzie, 48, a novelist, married in 1993 and have four children. Ms Bezos’ tweet is her first and only one since joining the microblogging website this month. In it she stated that she was “grateful to have finished the process of dissolving my marriage to Jeff with support from each other”.

Mr Bezos tweeted: “I’m so grateful to all my friends and family for reaching out with encouragement and love... MacKenzie most of all.” The tweet concluded with: “She is resourceful and brilliant and loving, and as our futures unroll, I know I’ll always be learning from her.” Last year, Amazon generated sales of $232.8bn and it has helped Mr Bezos and his family amass a fortune of $131bn, according to Forbes magazine.