Jeff Bezos, one of the world’s most famous entrepreneurs and the mind behind Amazon’s meteoric rise, is no stranger to milestones. But his latest milestone isn’t a rocket launch or a mind-boggling quarterly earnings report—it’s something far more personal. In a three-day spectacle befitting his nearly $227 billion fortune, Bezos, 61, has married his second wife, Lauren Sánchez, 55, in Venice, Italy, surrounded by some of the most powerful and recognizable names on the planet.
The celebration, which unfolded like a modern fairy tale set among canals and centuries-old palazzos, underscored how far Bezos has come—not just professionally but personally. From his early days building Amazon out of a Seattle garage to standing on the balcony of an Italian villa with his bride, Bezos’ life has been as much about reinvention as it has been about innovation.
While all eyes are on the newlyweds, the occasion has also revived public fascination with Bezos’ first marriage to MacKenzie Scott—another transformative relationship that shaped not just his personal story but the course of modern philanthropy.
Here’s a closer look at the couple’s star-studded wedding in Venice, the journey that brought Bezos and Sánchez together, and the extraordinary first marriage to MacKenzie Scott that defined a quarter-century of Bezos’ life.
If you wanted proof that the wedding of Jeff Bezos would be anything less than cinematic, you’d be out of luck. The festivities reportedly spanned three days of meticulously curated experiences, from private gondola rides to opulent feasts.
The guest list alone read like a cross between the Oscars and Davos. Among the 200 to 250 invitees were Academy Award winners, tech titans, royalty, and some of the most recognizable names in global culture. Tom Brady made an appearance. Oprah Winfrey came to toast the couple. Queen Rania of Jordan, Kris Jenner, Kim Kardashian, Khloé Kardashian, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, and fashion powerhouse Domenico Dolce of Dolce & Gabbana also turned up to celebrate.
While the specific details of the ceremony have been closely guarded (as one might expect when the richest man in the world gets married), sources described a setting dripping with candlelight, lush white florals, and music that spilled into the narrow Venetian streets.
Sánchez, a journalist and former news anchor, wore a custom gown that insiders say blended modern glamour with timeless elegance. Bezos looked every bit the billionaire groom, beaming as he greeted guests in a tailored suit, often with Sánchez’s hand tucked affectionately into the crook of his arm.
The moment capped a whirlwind romance that first became public in 2019—around the same time Bezos and Scott announced their separation.
To understand this new chapter, you have to look back at the foundation of Bezos’ life: his 25-year marriage to MacKenzie Scott. Before he was the world’s wealthiest man, before Blue Origin and the Washington Post, Bezos was a young hedge fund executive in New York City. And before MacKenzie Scott was a billionaire philanthropist rewriting the playbook on charitable giving, she was a novelist working alongside him at D.E. Shaw & Co.
The two met in 1992. As MacKenzie would later recount in interviews, she heard Bezos laughing through the wall of her office and was charmed. Their romance progressed quickly. Within three months of dating, they were engaged. A year later, in 1993, they married.
At the time, neither could have guessed just how much their partnership would shape the trajectory of the global economy. When Bezos decided to leave D.E. Shaw to launch an online bookstore called Amazon, it was MacKenzie who helped drive their Honda across the country to Seattle. She would become the company’s first accountant and an early force behind its operations.
Their marriage was a true partnership, one built on intellectual kinship, shared risk, and mutual ambition. Over the decades, as Amazon evolved from a scrappy startup into a trillion-dollar behemoth, the couple raised four children—three sons and one daughter, whose names they have kept private to protect their privacy.
After 25 years, Bezos and Scott announced their separation in January 2019. The news, shared via a joint statement on social media, was remarkably gracious and measured.
“If we had known we would separate after 25 years, we would do it all again,” the statement read. “We’ve had such a great life together as a married couple, and we also see wonderful futures ahead as parents, friends, partners in ventures and projects, and as individuals pursuing ventures and adventures.”
The sentiment struck many as almost surreal in its civility. But those who knew the couple weren’t surprised; Bezos and Scott had always operated as a team. Even their parting was infused with the same respect and clarity that defined their union.
Their divorce became one of the largest financial settlements in history. Scott received 25% of the couple’s Amazon shares, a stake valued at roughly $36 billion at the time. Despite the scale of the settlement, Bezos retained voting control over her shares—a detail that underscored their ongoing alignment as business partners.
While many might have retreated from public view after such a seismic split, Scott used her newfound wealth to launch an unprecedented philanthropic mission. Through her foundation, Yield Giving, she has given away over $19 billion in unrestricted donations to thousands of nonprofits—a radical departure from the highly structured, multi-year grantmaking model used by many wealthy donors.
Her impact has been so significant that a 2024 study concluded Scott’s giving has had a “transformational effect” on the nonprofit sector. She is often celebrated as one of the world’s most influential philanthropists, proving that the end of her marriage to Bezos was hardly the end of her influence.
As Bezos and Scott moved into new chapters, Bezos began a relationship with Lauren Sánchez. A former anchor and helicopter pilot, Sánchez had carved out a career in journalism and media long before stepping into Bezos’ orbit.
The couple’s relationship initially attracted intense tabloid scrutiny. Their romance became public around the same time as Bezos’ divorce announcement, prompting a flurry of speculation. But over time, their partnership has grown more visible and seemingly more settled.
Friends describe them as deeply supportive of one another’s ambitions. Sánchez, who has her own production company, has also been involved in Bezos’ aerospace endeavors through Blue Origin.
Their engagement, announced in May 2023, was a milestone that many saw coming. Bezos proposed aboard his $500 million superyacht, named Koru, during a Mediterranean cruise. The ring—reportedly a diamond of staggering size—was emblematic of the life the couple shares: big, bold, unapologetically luxurious.
While Bezos’ wedding to Sánchez marks a personal turning point, it also highlights how complex the narrative of his life has become. He is at once the entrepreneur who revolutionized commerce and the high-profile figure who has struggled at times to manage public scrutiny.
His net worth, estimated at over $226 billion as of June 2025, makes him one of the wealthiest people in modern history. As the founder and Executive Chair of Amazon, Bezos has overseen everything from the Kindle to cloud computing services that power much of the internet.
In 2021, he stepped down as Amazon’s CEO to focus on other ventures—most notably Blue Origin, his private aerospace company. His ambitions in space travel, including an eventual mission to the Moon, speak to a lifelong fascination with exploration and technology.
At the same time, Bezos has been criticized for Amazon’s labor practices and its environmental impact, illustrating how complicated it can be to balance innovation with accountability.
Sánchez, too, has become a more visible presence in Bezos’ public life. Together, they have attended galas, climate summits, and philanthropic events. Their wedding in Venice wasn’t just a private celebration—it was a statement about the next chapter of their shared story.
While Bezos was marrying Sánchez in Italy, MacKenzie Scott was continuing her own remarkable journey. After her divorce from Bezos, she married Dan Jewett, a science teacher from Seattle whom she met at her children’s school. The marriage, however, was short-lived. Scott filed for divorce in September 2022, finalizing it in January 2023.
Despite the end of her second marriage, Scott has remained focused on her philanthropy. She has consistently emphasized that her mission is to redistribute her wealth quickly and with minimal bureaucracy.
She is also a signatory of the Giving Pledge, a commitment launched by Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and Melinda French Gates, in which billionaires promise to give away the majority of their fortunes. Scott’s approach—fast, flexible, and rooted in trust—has become a case study in modern giving.
Her net worth is estimated at $31.5 billion as of June 2025—a testament to how rapidly wealth can regenerate, even as she gives billions away.
In many ways, the story of Jeff Bezos and his two marriages is the story of 21st-century wealth itself. It’s a tale of ambition, risk, reinvention, and the profound ways in which personal choices shape public legacies.
Bezos’ marriage to MacKenzie Scott created not just a company but a philanthropic movement. Their amicable divorce set a new standard for how high-net-worth couples could navigate separation with grace. Scott’s rise as a philanthropist demonstrated how wealth can be leveraged to create lasting change—without waiting decades to act.
Bezos’ second marriage to Sánchez signals a different phase—one where the world’s richest man seems determined to savor the personal joys he might have set aside in Amazon’s early years. From their extravagant vacations to their shared business interests, Bezos and Sánchez appear intent on living life fully, no matter the headlines.
As the couple begins married life in Venice, their story feels both spectacular and strangely human. They are two people who found each other later in life, willing to brave public scrutiny to build something new together.
For Bezos, the wedding may represent not just a celebration of love but a kind of culmination—a moment to pause, reflect, and chart a new course. Whether that path leads further into space exploration, philanthropy, or simply enjoying the pleasures of the world he helped reimagine, only time will tell.
One thing is certain: when Jeff Bezos celebrates a milestone, he does it on a scale that only a few can comprehend. But behind the fireworks and the fortune, there remains a story that is at its core about love, partnership, and the quest to leave a mark—both on the world and in the hearts of the people who matter most.