Technology

The marriage of Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos, richest couple in history

Published

6 years ago

September 4, 2018

Áine Cain

Jeff Bezos wife Mackenzie Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos met at work — he was the first person to interview her at the firm.Evan Agostini/AP Images

Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos and his wife MacKenzie were married in 1993, after meeting at D.E. Shaw & Co.
Shortly afterward, the couple relocated to Seattle to found Amazon.
MacKenzie was one of the company’s first employees.
Today, Jeff Bezos is worth $166 billion, making him the richest person in history.

Jeff Bezos wasn’t alone when he made his cross-county road trip to Seattle in 1994. And he wasn’t alone when he founded Amazon, the online retail giant some analysts now believe will be the world’s first trillion-dollar company.

His wife, MacKenzie, was there for the whole journey.

In an interview with CBS, she described watching her husband build Amazon up from scratch: “To me, watching your spouse, somebody that you love, have an adventure — what is better than that?”

Today, Bloomberg estimates Bezos is worth $166 billion — making him the richest person in history, according to CNN. He’s also topped Forbes’ annual list of the richest people on the planet for the first time ever. And, on Tuesday, Amazon followed Apple to become the second-ever US company to reach a $1 trillion valuation.

Here’s a look inside the marriage of Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos.

MacKenzie and Jeff first met at investment management firm D.E. Shaw. MacKenzie was a research associate and Jeff was a vice president. Jeff was the first person to interview MacKenzie — a fellow Princeton grad — at the firm.

Danny Moloshok/Reuters

Source: Business Insider, Forbes, Vogue

“I think my wife is resourceful, smart, brainy, and hot, but I had the good fortune of having seen her résumé before I met her, so I knew exactly what her SATs were,” he joked to Vogue.

David Ryder/Getty

Source: Vogue

After she landed the job, they became office neighbors. “All day long I listened to that fabulous laugh,” she told Vogue. “How could you not fall in love with that laugh?”

Mario Tama/Getty Images

Source: Vogue

Jeff said he knew from the beginning he wanted to marry a resourceful person.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Source: Wired, Business Insider

“Nobody knows what you mean when you say, ‘I’m looking for a resourceful woman,'” he told Wired. “If I tell somebody I’m looking for a woman who can get me out of a Third World prison, they start thinking Ross Perot — they have something they can hang their hat on!”

Lucas Jackson/Reuters

Source: Wired, Business Insider

MacKenzie made the first move and asked Jeff out to lunch. They were engaged within three months, and married within six.

Matt Cardy / Stringer / Getty Images

Source: Wired

Then, Jeff told his wife about his business idea. MacKenzie said that, while she’s not a “business person,” she could hear the passion in her husband’s voice when he spoke. The following year, in 1994, they quit their jobs and traveled to Seattle to found Amazon.

Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images

Source: CBS This Morning

MacKenzie became an accountant for Amazon, and was one of the company’s earliest employees.

Evan Agostini/AP Images

Source: Business Insider

Until around 1999, the couple lived in a one-bedroom rental house in Seattle, according to Wired. Today, they own five houses across the US, in Medina, Washington, Beverly Hills, Van Horn, Texas, DC, and Manhattan. Jeff is the 25th largest landowner in the US, according to Business Insider.

Source: Business Insider, Wired

But, until 2013, MacKenzie still drove their four kids to school and then dropped Jeff off at work in their Honda. Family friend Danny Hillis told Vogue that the Bezos’ “are such a normal, close-knit family, it’s almost abnormal.”

Richard Brian/Reuters

Source: Vogue

The family also adheres to a fairly normal routine. The Bezos family reportedly starts off the day with a healthy breakfast. To spend more time with the family, Jeff never schedules early-morning meetings at Amazon.

Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images

Source: Entrepreneur, Inc.

When it comes to educating their four kids, MacKenzie told Vogue the couple has tried a range of strategies, including, “off-season travel, kitchen-science experiments, chicken incubation, Mandarin lessons, the Singapore math program, and lots of clubs and sports with other neighborhood kids.”

Chip Somodevilla/Getty

Source: Vogue

MacKenzie — who was an assistant to Toni Morrison in college — is now a novelist. When she needs to write, Bezos retreats to her own small apartment, where she writes until it’s time to pick the kids up from school. MacKenzie told Vogue her husband is her “best reader.”

Source: Vogue

But still, MacKenzie didn’t become a part of Amazon’s new publishing imprint. “We are calling her the fish that got away,” Jeff told Vogue.

Drew Angerer / Getty Images

Source: Heavy.com, Vogue

They’re so in tune that Jeff will often buy clothes for MacKenzie on the fly, he told Vogue. “Sometimes I call her and say, ‘What’s your such-and-such size?’ and she says, ‘Why?’ and I say, ‘None of your business!’ It delights her.”

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Source: Vogue

And the Amazon CEO has said he wraps up the day with a chore that his wife appreciates: washing the dishes. “I’m pretty convinced it’s the sexiest thing I do,” he told Business Insider CEO Henry Blodget.

Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Source: Recode

The Televisor

The marriage of Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos, richest couple in history

MacKenzie and Jeff first met at investment management firm D.E. Shaw. MacKenzie was a research associate and Jeff was a vice president. Jeff was the first person to interview MacKenzie — a fellow Princeton grad — at the firm.

“I think my wife is resourceful, smart, brainy, and hot, but I had the good fortune of having seen her résumé before I met her, so I knew exactly what her SATs were,” he joked to Vogue.

After she landed the job, they became office neighbors. “All day long I listened to that fabulous laugh,” she told Vogue. “How could you not fall in love with that laugh?”

Jeff said he knew from the beginning he wanted to marry a resourceful person.

“Nobody knows what you mean when you say, ‘I’m looking for a resourceful woman,'” he told Wired. “If I tell somebody I’m looking for a woman who can get me out of a Third World prison, they start thinking Ross Perot — they have something they can hang their hat on!”

MacKenzie made the first move and asked Jeff out to lunch. They were engaged within three months, and married within six.

Then, Jeff told his wife about his business idea. MacKenzie said that, while she’s not a “business person,” she could hear the passion in her husband’s voice when he spoke. The following year, in 1994, they quit their jobs and traveled to Seattle to found Amazon.

MacKenzie became an accountant for Amazon, and was one of the company’s earliest employees.

Until around 1999, the couple lived in a one-bedroom rental house in Seattle, according to Wired. Today, they own five houses across the US, in Medina, Washington, Beverly Hills, Van Horn, Texas, DC, and Manhattan. Jeff is the 25th largest landowner in the US, according to Business Insider.

But, until 2013, MacKenzie still drove their four kids to school and then dropped Jeff off at work in their Honda. Family friend Danny Hillis told Vogue that the Bezos’ “are such a normal, close-knit family, it’s almost abnormal.”

The family also adheres to a fairly normal routine. The Bezos family reportedly starts off the day with a healthy breakfast. To spend more time with the family, Jeff never schedules early-morning meetings at Amazon.

When it comes to educating their four kids, MacKenzie told Vogue the couple has tried a range of strategies, including, “off-season travel, kitchen-science experiments, chicken incubation, Mandarin lessons, the Singapore math program, and lots of clubs and sports with other neighborhood kids.”

MacKenzie — who was an assistant to Toni Morrison in college — is now a novelist. When she needs to write, Bezos retreats to her own small apartment, where she writes until it’s time to pick the kids up from school. MacKenzie told Vogue her husband is her “best reader.”

He’d often drop other plans to read and carefully review manuscripts of her first novel “The Testing of Luther Albright.” For MacKenzie’s second novel, “Traps,” she decided to not share her work with her husband until was finished.

“The sooner I finished, the sooner I could share it with him and talk about these characters who had been taking up so much space in my head,” she told Vogue.

But still, MacKenzie didn’t become a part of Amazon’s new publishing imprint. “We are calling her the fish that got away,” Jeff told Vogue.

MacKenzie told Vogue that their contrasting personalities complement each other. “He likes to meet people. He’s a very social guy. Cocktail parties for me can be nerve-racking. The brevity of conversations, the number of them — it’s not my sweet spot,” she said.

They’re so in tune that Jeff will often buy clothes for MacKenzie on the fly, he told Vogue. “Sometimes I call her and say, ‘What’s your such-and-such size?’ and she says, ‘Why?’ and I say, ‘None of your business!’ It delights her.”

And the Amazon CEO has said he wraps up the day with a chore that his wife appreciates: washing the dishes. “I’m pretty convinced it’s the sexiest thing I do,” he told Business Insider CEO Henry Blodget.

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