Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott files for divorce

MacKenzie Scott, a billionaire philanthropist who has donated vast sums of her wealth in recent years, has filed for divorce from her second husband, a science teacher whom she married in 2021.

The petition was filed in King County, Wash., on Monday, 18 months after Scott and Dan Jewett announced their marriage. The filing requests that the couple’s property be divided according to a separation contract, the details of which were not included in the petition. Jewett and his lawyer also signed the filing, which was first reported by the New York Times.

In 2019, Scott and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (who owns The Washington Post) ended their 25-year marriage, with Scott being awarded about 4 percent of Amazon, a cut worth roughly $36 billion at the time. Since then, Scott has been donating her fortune at an astonishing rate — an estimated $12 billion to more than 1,200 groups in three years, the Times reported in March.