MacKenzie Scott's Divorce Will be Kept SECRET

(Daily Mail) - Court documents reveal MacKenzie Scott's won't pay alimony from her $28.9BN fortune.

  • The details of the divorce MacKenzie Scott and Dan Jewett will likely remain a secret after the two signed a private separation contract 
  • The contract keeps hidden how the philanthropist, worth $28.9 billion, will split her fortune with the former high school chemistry teacher
  • According to the divorce petition filed in Washington, there will be no alimony payments or custody battles over Scott's four children she shares with Bezos
  • It is unknown if Scott's $37.5 million Seattle mansion will be divided in the split  
  • Jewett also disappeared from her Giving Pledge profile sometime in the past week, which was used to announce their secretive 2021 union

     

The details of philanthropist MacKenzie Scott's divorce with her husband will be kept secret, but court documents show she won't be paying him any alimony from her $28.9 billion fortune.

Scott, 52, who was previously married to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, filed for divorce in Washington State on Monday from her husband, former high school chemistry teacher Dan Jewett, 47.

According to the petition filed in King County Court, a division of property and debt will be 'laid out in a separation contract' that Scott and Jewett both agreed upon in a private contract, which shields the proceedings from the public.

In Washington State, a separation contract essentially tells the court how spouses' assets should be divided when they file for divorce.  

The filing shows there are no plans for alimony payments, split custody of Scott's four children that she shares with Bezos, nor did the couple indicate they had a child together in their short year together. 

Jewett did not contest the divorce, court records showed. 

Both Scott and Jewett have remained relatively silent about their union and assets, and it is currently unknown if a $37.5 million Seattle mansion reportedly owned by Scott is up for grabs.

Scott famously won $36 billion from her split with Bezos in 2019, and she has since donated about $12.8 billion to hundreds of charities. 

Bloomberg currently estimates Scott's net worth at more than $28 billion. 

In March of 2021, Scott used the Giving Pledge site to announce her marriage to Jewett - a high school chemistry teacher at the private Lakeside School that her children attended - by adding his name to her vow to donate the majority of their wealth to charity. 

According to the divorce petition, the couple got married in California.  

Jewett's name has also recently been edited out of a Medium post that Scott wrote last year about their giving efforts, which first reported on the quiet changes. 

Jewett reportedly finished teaching at the school last year, noting that his high-profile presence at the private academy had become a distraction. 

Given Scott and Jewett's proclivity for privacy, the full terms of their divorce will likely remain a secret. 

Domenic Romano, founder and managing attorney of the Romano Law firm, noted that it was uncommon for someone of Scott's wealth to have gotten married without a prenuptial agreement. 

'Typically, in a high-profile divorce, once a separation agreement has been filed along with the divorce, the former couple has already determined their division of assets,' Romano told DailyMail.com. 

'If those reports are correct, we would expect that the divorce details will be finalized quickly, since Dan has apparently not contested MacKenzie's filing. 

'It should be noted that separation agreement negotiations can sometimes last for over a year... which is about the same amount of time that MacKenzie and Dan were married.'

Scott, who has remained relatively quiet about her full assets, reportedly owned three large estates, two in Beverly Hills and one in Seattle, with the billionaire giving the two California properties away to charity earlier this month.

The adjacent mansions were worth $55 million, with 90 percent of the value going to the California Community Foundation to help with affordable housing and help Los Angeles' immigrant integration program. 

The 2.5-acre Beverly Hills property includes a 12,000-square-foot main residence — described as a Spanish hacienda-style mansion built in the 1990s. There's also a 4,500-square-foot guesthouse. There are 13 bedrooms and 14 bathrooms.

On the property, there is also a lap-lane swimming pool, full-size tennis court, patios for outdoor entertaining and parking for dozens of cars.

Scott was granted ownership of the property during her divorce from Bezos, which was worth $37 million at the time. 

The philanthropist also reportedly owns a large mansion in Seattle's Hunts Point neighborhood, according to Dirt.com

Reports surfaced of an unknown buyer splurging $37.5 million on the 3.2 waterfront acre home in 2019, with Scott being the likely buyer following her divorce from Bezos that year and the sell of their nearby Medina home. 

The sale was the most ever paid for a Seattle-area home, another indicator that the buyer was likely the billionaire Scott. 

The home includes three bedrooms, four baths, a rooftop deck with a fire place and Japanese garden, a glass bridge that connects to a two-story guesthouse and even an indoor elevator. 

Since their quiet marriage last year, Scott and Jewett had also become known for donating in relative secrecy. 

Giving as individuals rather than through a foundation means the couple's donations were known only when the recipients disclosed them, or through her occasional blog posts. 

Scott has written previously that she doesn't respond to press inquiries in an effort not to overshadow the work of the organizations to which she donates. 

Following her divorce from Bezos after 25 years of marriage, Scott became one of the richest women in the world, with a 4 percent stake in Amazon.

At times, her generous giving has drawn negative attention to Bezos, who is worth $137 billion, over the relative paucity of his donations to charity.

However, Bezos has stepped up his giving in recent years, and has pledged to donate $10 billion through his Bezos Earth Fund, an initiative to combat climate change that has granted $1.54 billion so far, according to its website.

Scott's divorce from Bezos unfolded as the Amazon founder entered a new romance with former television news anchor Lauren Sánchez. 

Bezos, 58, and Sánchez, 52, continue to date, and were most recently spotted together at the premiere party for the Amazon Prime Video series The Rings Of Power. 

Sánchez, who has her own small fortune estimated at $30 million, has also dipped her toe into the world of philanthropy, announcing a $1 million gift to a group serving migrant children in July.  

She is also divorced from multimillionaire business executive Patrick Whitesell, the chairman of media agency Endeavor, which owns the UFC and Miss Universe.

Sanchez's ex-husband Whitesell also found new love last year, when he married Australian actress Pia Miller.

Mackenzie Scott became the world's third-wealthiest woman and one of the 50 wealthiest people on earth when she divorced Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in 2019.

The divorce settlement left Scott with $35.6 billion in Amazon stock. Scott has since joined The Giving Pledge, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet's campaign to encourage extremely wealthy people to contribute a majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes.

Even amid what appears to be a tough time, she has continued her giving, just in the last month parting ways with two homes worth a colossal $55million, according to the California Community Foundation

Scott was granted ownership of the property during her divorce from Bezos, which was $37 million at the time, but has since appreciated to $55 million. 

Just in the past week, Scott (without now estranged husband Dan Jewett's name attached) gave $35million in gifts to The Health Forward Foundation in Kansas City and $20million to The Episcopal Health Foundation in Houston.  

It represents the latest in Scott's ongoing philanthropy spree where she has given away more than $12 billion of her estimated $42.5 billion fortune she was awarded in her divorce settlement, according to Fortune, including $436 million to Habitat for Humanity and $275 million to Planned Parenthood.

By Ronny Reyes
September 29, 2022

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