Jeff Bezos & Lauren Sanchez Make Major Change to Finances After Reports They’re Already Going to Court For Money
When you’re one of the richest men in the world, there’s a lot of interest in any changes to your finances. And Jeff Bezos is worth around $235 billion, so the interest is about as high as that number. And that’s after his divorce from ex Mackenzie Scott, which saw her become one of the richest women in the world.
Now, Bezos has announced a big donation. The Amazon founder and his wife, former journalist Lauren Sánchez, are awarding $5 million to the founder of a neurodivergent student support network.
Related: How do Jeff Bezos’s kids feel about Lauren Sanchez?
“I feel like there’s a narrative sometimes that our little actions don’t matter,” Neurodiversity Alliance CEO David Flink said. “That’s just not true. And this proves it. Lots of little actions that happen every day in our work, collectively over time, reached the ears of folks like Lauren and Jeff.”
Flink is among the five winners of this year’s Bezos Courage & Civility Award. The grant, which has been given most years since 2021, celebrates leaders who create innovative solutions to often overlooked challenges.
All of this comes after reports about Mackenzie Scott’s charitable contributions since divorcing Bezos. Scott has reportedly donated over $19 billion dollars since her 2019 divorce from Bezos, with her net worth reported to be around $32.5 billion, according to Forbes. Still not a small number, but when she’s given more than half of what she now has, that’s big.
This also comes after a recent update on the legal battle Sánchez and Bezos have been engaged in with her estranged brother, Michael Sánchez. Page Six reported that their legal team filed a motion in California Superior Court demanding that Michael pay $182,374 in attorney’s fees and $8,182 in legal costs, “incurred in connection with (1) her successful Special Motion to Strike, and (2) this Motion for Attorney’s Fees and Costs.” The hourly rates for the lawyers range from $549 to $1,125.
Reportedly, this all ties back to an alleged affair between Bezos and Sanchez, which was first reported when the former journalist was still married to Patrick Whitesell. When the news originally broke, it came with X-rated photos from the couple’s private texts, The National Enquirer. Michael Sánchez was believed to be the source of the leak at the time.
He denied the accusations and referred to his sister and her new husband as “liars and cheaters,” subsequently suing them for defamation. However, the Los Angeles County Superior Court ruled in Bezos’s favor. After that, Bezos asked Michael Sánchez to cover the legal fees.
Basically, Bezos and his new wife stand to gain more money from absolutely all of this. And even though they are indeed giving some money to charity this year, as they have in the past few years, they are still billionaires, and unless they start giving money away at Mackenzie Scott’s pace, that is unlikely to change anytime soon. The rich will remain rich, and people will still be interested in what they’re using their money for and who they’re giving it away to.
