It is not precisely straightforward to really feel a lot sympathy for Jeff Bezos, aka the Amazon founder, who’s presently second solely to obvious nemesis Elon Musk because the richest man on the planet. In spite of everything, his money-spinning enterprise has always been known as out for the whole lot from inhumane working situations to violations of privateness since turning into the world’s primary retailer. He is additionally been accused of allegedly discriminating in opposition to his housekeeper, curbing free speech amid the pages of the Washington Publish, and damaging the setting by launching quite a few vainness journeys to area, together with one involving his expensive gift-flaunting girlfriend Lauren Sanchez. And that is solely only a small taster of the controversies and scandals he has confronted criticism for.

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However that does not imply the multi-billionaire – who as soon as gave CNN’s Van Jones $100 million – hasn’t been on the receiving finish of life’s tougher aspect, both. From estranged fathers and near-death experiences to marriage break-ups and extortion plots, here is a have a look at 9 events that proved that even the rich cannot purchase their manner out of tragedy fully.

Simply 17 months after welcoming him into the world, Jeff Bezos’ dad and mom headed for the divorce courts. Jacklyn and Ted Jorgensen had first met as teenagers, however their carefree highschool romance took a scandalous flip when the previous found she was carrying the long run multi-billionaire. “I can guarantee you that being a pregnant teenager in highschool was not cool in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at the moment,” the Amazon founder later informed Döpfner (through Folks).

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And issues solely acquired tougher from there. The pair, who’d walked down the aisle shortly earlier than Bezos’ beginning, struggled to deal with the monetary calls for of elevating a younger youngster: Ted earned simply over $1 an hour for his division retailer job, and his function in a unicycle troupe did little to assist the household.

As he admits himself, Ted did not precisely decide to life as a household man. “I wasn’t a very good father or husband,” he later revealed in Brad Stone’s e book “The Every part Retailer,” confirming that he’d spent a lot of Bezos’ younger life consuming and partying. “It was actually all my fault. I do not blame Jackie in any respect.” Following the wedding breakdown, Jacklyn and her toddler son moved in together with her dad and mom, whereas Ted ultimately relocated to Phoenix to start out a wholly new life.

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Ted Jorgensen agreed to chop any type of contact together with his younger son when his ex-wife acquired hitched to Miguel Bezos, a Cuban engineer, in 1968. In reality, Jeff Bezos believed that the latter, who adopted him quickly after, was his organic dad till the age of ten. And Ted was little doubt simply as dumbstruck when he discovered in 2012 that his estranged firstborn was now one of many richest males on the planet.

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Sure, Ted had no concept that Jeff Jorgensen had advanced into multi-billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos till “The Every part Retailer” author Brad Stone acquired in contact in 2012. Two years later, the one-time unicyclist, who’d since twice remarried, informed “Inside Version” that he regretted staying out of his son’s life. “An enormous mistake,” he acknowledged (through Folks). “However on the time, I assumed it was the perfect.”

“I might identical to to inform him I used to vary his diapers and simply shake his hand and inform him he is actually performed a very good job together with his life,” Ted added in what proved to be his parting phrases. Sadly, a reunion with Bezos, who chances are you’ll not know can be associated to a well-known nation singer, by no means materialized, and only a yr on from the interview, he died on the age of 70.

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Jeff Bezos had grown up believing that he was a one-of-a-kind genius. He’d been a Nationwide Benefit Scholar and highschool valedictorian, was granted a spot on the College of Florida’s Scholar Science Coaching Program, and in his commencement speech, revealed his aspirations of turning into a pioneering astronaut. So, it got here as one thing of a shock when he started learning at Princeton College to search out that he wasn’t the last word brainbox of his class.

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“I went to Princeton particularly to review physics and came upon, by the point I acquired to quantum mechanics … I used to be doing nicely, but it surely was a lot work for me,” he admitted to The Guardian in 2001. “It was onerous — and there have been half a dozen individuals in my class who have been so gifted, and their brains have been simply wired another way, and the issues that I labored so onerous to do got here so effortlessly to them.”

Bezos went on to say that though he was in awe of his classmates’ capabilities, he was additionally left feeling barely unmoored. “It was kind of, ‘Wow, that is unbelievable that some individuals can course of these extremely summary ideas so gracefully’ … So anyway, I spotted that I used to be going to be a mediocre theoretical physicist.” The ultimate straw got here when fellow pupil Yasantha Rajakarunanayake solved a mathematical equation a lot faster, and Bezos subsequently refocused his consideration to the world of pc engineering as an alternative.

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Jeff Bezos skilled one almighty scare in 2003 when the helicopter he was touring in crashed quickly after taking off at a Texas airport. The plane had landed in a stream after being closely impacted by robust winds, however fortunately, the enterprise mogul escaped with just a few cuts and bruises and was discharged from the hospital that exact same day.

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Bezos had been on board with two different passengers and pilot Charles Bella, all of whom additionally managed to keep away from severe harm, for a mission to search out new plots of land to assist additional construct his fortune. The flight had been organized by Ann Hiatt, an assistant who’d solely simply began work on the retail large. And a number of other years later, she revealed on the Partnering Management YouTube channel (through Instagram) how horrified she’d been to be taught concerning the accident.

“And I simply assume to myself: ‘I simply killed Jeff Bezos,’ after which it happens to me that if I simply killed Jeff Bezos, your complete firm was going to crumble,” Hiatt stated. “As a result of at that time, all of our inventory worth, all of our traders and shareholders have been invested in […] the distinctive thoughts that was Jeff. And that may have simply disappeared.” After all, tragedy was averted, and it seems that Hiatt had really given her boss the prospect to play the hero, with the multi-billionaire apparently guaranteeing that everybody contained in the helicopter acquired out safely.

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Whereas Jeff Bezos’ skilled life has continued to soar, his personal life suffered a serious blow in 2019 with the information that he and his spouse of 25 years have been divorcing. The entrepreneur and Mackenzie Scott had met on the identical funding agency manner again in 1993, and a yr later, each left their respective vice chairman and analysis affiliate positions to launch Amazon from a rented Washington storage.

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“After a protracted interval of loving exploration and trial separation, we now have determined to divorce and proceed our shared lives as pals,” the pair stated in a joint assertion (through BBC Information). “We really feel extremely fortunate to have discovered one another and deeply grateful for each one of many years we now have been married to one another.” Regardless of rumors that Bezos had been seeing present girlfriend Lauren Sanchez whereas nonetheless wed to Scott, the pair have nonetheless publicly maintained their amicable entrance.

After all, Bezos’ financial institution steadiness additionally took a big hit as soon as the divorce papers went by means of. Scott, who’s loved success of her personal as the author of novels “Traps” and “The Testing of Luther Albright,” retained a 4% share within the enterprise she helped to get off the bottom within the settlement. This put her web price someplace across the $35 billion mark, immediately making her the world’s third wealthiest girl.

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Shortly after asserting his divorce from his spouse of 25 years, MacKenzie Scott, Jeff Bezos was accused by the Nationwide Enquirer of beforehand partaking in an extramarital affair with now-girlfriend Lauren Sanchez. They usually apparently had the textual content messages and intimate photographs to show it. As you’d anticipate, the multi-billionaire did not take this gross invasion of privateness mendacity down and launched into a quest to find how such revealing info was leaked.

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American Media Inc., the tabloid’s dad or mum firm, then added gas to the fireplace when it reportedly threatened to make public a number of way more compromising snaps if Bezos did not cease taking part in Columbo. This additionally went down like a lead balloon, and the Amazon founder subsequently uploaded a Medium weblog put up wherein he posted the receipts. “These communications cement AMI’s long-earned fame for weaponizing journalistic privileges, hiding behind vital protections, and ignoring the tenets and function of true journalism,” the livid entrepreneur wrote.

“After all I do not need private photographs revealed, however I additionally will not take part of their well-known follow of blackmail, political favors, political assaults, and corruption,” Bezos continued. “I desire to face up, roll this log over, and see what crawls out.” The plot later thickened when rumors surfaced that the person who’d bought all of the secrets and techniques was none apart from Sanchez’s personal brother.

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Practically 20 years after strolling away from a helicopter crash nearly unhurt, Jeff Bezos found that considered one of his closest pals had additionally been concerned in an air visitors accident. Tragically, as considered one of two individuals killed when a airplane went down in New Jersey, Glen de Vries wasn’t as lucky.

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“Such a tragic loss,” Bezos captioned an Instagram snap of de Vries posing alongside a mannequin of a Blue Origin rocket from the billionaire’s aerospace agency. “Heat and lively, Glen made us chuckle and lit up the room.” The entrepreneur went on so as to add that each he, and his girlfriend, Lauren Sanchez, have been heartbroken by the information. “Our deepest sympathies are together with his companion, Leah, and all his family members. The world misplaced you too quickly, Glen.”

Solely a month earlier, de Vries had served as a crew member on the identical NS-18 mission, which additionally famously took “Star Trek” icon William Shatner into area, a journey he’d beforehand described as his “oldest, and lifelong enduring, dream.” Investigators struggled to find out the reason for the accident that claimed his life, noting that the plane, which was being piloted by de Vries with the assistance of flight teacher Thomas Fischer, had no prior mechanical points.

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Whereas some press stories have claimed that his girlfriend Lauren Sanchez’s estranged brother was behind the leaks that put Jeff Bezos in an uncompromising place, the Amazon mogul himself believes that he was the sufferer of a Saudi conspiracy.

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Throughout his personal investigation into how the Nationwide Enquirer acquired their palms on delicate materials, Bezos claimed that his cellular had been hacked following an encrypted WhatsApp message despatched by an account linked to Mohammed bin Salman, aka the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. A digital forensic evaluation allegedly discovered that the video in query had additionally included a malicious bug designed to illicitly extract private information.

The Saudi inheritor and Bezos had beforehand loved a wholly amiable and amicable string of conversations earlier than the unsolicited clip induced all the difficulty. In response to varied consultants within the Saudi discipline, the multi-billionaire had reportedly been focused attributable to his takeover of the Washington Publish, a newspaper stated to have been crucial of the nation’s political regime.

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Jeff Bezos definitely had a memorable begin to the yr 2014, however for a cause he’d fairly neglect. The enterprise mogul was having fun with a cruise ship trip journeying between the islands of Santa Cruz and Floreana on New Yr’s Day when he was all of a sudden struck down by an assault of the kidney stones.

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After all, as somebody who makes a ridiculous sum of money per second, Bezos was instantly afforded the utmost medical care, with an Ecuadorian Navy helicopter transporting him to Baltra Island, the place his personal jet then took him to emergency surgical procedure in the USA. “He needed to be attended to within the shortest potential time,” an announcement from the Navy reasoned (through The Guardian).

“Galapagos: 5 stars. Kidney stones: zero stars,” Bezos quipped in an e mail when requested by Reuters for a remark surrounding all of the drama. The multi-billionaire later made a full restoration and, through his military of associates, thanked everybody concerned for his or her fast response.