Ex-wife of world’s wealthiest man is now the richest woman on the planet

The ex-wife of the world’s wealthiest man is now the richest woman on the planet, NBC News reports.

MacKenzie Scott, the former spouse of Jeff Bezos, is now worth $66.4 billion (Ksh7.2 trillion), surpassing Alice Walton — an heir to part of the Walmart fortune — whose net worth has been estimated by Forbes at $56 billion (Ksh6.1 trillion).

MacKenzie, who was married to Bezos for 26 years, divorced the dollar multibillionaire in January 2019.

Fifty-six-year-old Bezos, who is the founder of Amazon.com, Inc., has a net worth of $204.6 billion (Ksh22.2 trillion), effectively putting him on a league of his own as his closest challenger to the world’s wealthiest person crown, Bill Gates, falls behind by $90 billion (Ksh9.7 trillion).

Following the split from Bezos, MacKenzie, 50, received $38 billion (Ksh4.1 trillion) in divorce settlement, instantly pushing her to the fourth place on the list of world’s richest women at the time — behind Alice Louise Walton (first), Francoise Bettencourt Meyers (second) and Julia Koch (third).

MacKenzie’s $38 billion divorce settlement was a 4 per cent stake in Amazon. The company’s shares have risen from nearly $2,000 (Ksh217,000) to $3,500 (Ksh379,000) since the start of the year, consequently pushing up MacKenzie’s fortunes.

The current world’s richest woman is one of the billionaires who have signed “The Giving Pledge,” a commitment to donate the majority of their wealth.

Out of her over $60 billion net worth, Scott recently gave $1.7 billion (Ksh184 billion) to a plethora of nonprofit organizations and historically black colleges.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk, the CEO of electric cars, solar and integrated renewable energy company, Tesla, has crossed Mark Zuckerberg to become world’s third richest man as his net worth increased to $115.4 billion (Ksh12.5 trillion).

The founder of social media giant Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, is now on the fourth position with a net worth of $110.8 billion (Ksh12 trillion).

The SPaceX and Tesla owner saw an increase of nearly $87.8 billion (Ksh9.5 trillion) this year due to an increase of almost 500 per cent in Tesla’s shares.

Reports by Bloomberg Billionaire Index have also suggested that Musk, who is quite famous and liked on Twitter too, has gained the most among all the billionaires.

As per Bloomberg, “Tesla’s $464 billion (Ksh50.3 trillion) market value is now more than retail behemoth Walmart.”

Musk is now following Jeff Bezos, world’s richest man, with a net worth of $204.6 billion (Ksh22.2 trillion), and Bill Gates, the second richest man who has a net worth of $125 billion (Ksh13.5 trillion).