Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and wife split after 25 years of marriage

The world’s richest man, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and his wife MacKenzie Bezos on Wednesday announced that were divorcing after a long separation. "We want to make people aware of development in our lives," Jeff Bezos, 54, and MacKenzie Bezos, 48, said in a joint statement posted on micro-blogging website Twitter. "As our family and close friends know, after a long period of loving exploration and trial separation, we have decided to divorce and continue our shared lives as friends." The Bezoses said they felt "incredibly lucky" for their 25 years together and would remain involved with each other as close friends and parents. The couple has four children.

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— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) January 9, 2019

"Though the labels might be different, we remain a family and we remain, cherished friends," the statement continued. "If we had known we would separate after 25 years, we would do it all again. 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.

"Though the labels might be different, we remain a family, and we remain cherished friends."

MacKenzie Bezos and her husband first met when she was a student at Princeton University and she was interviewing for a job at a New York Hedge Fund, according to Vogue magazine.

Bezos, who owns The Washington Post, has an estimated net worth of $137 billion and topped Forbes’s list last year of the richest Americans (beating out Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Mark Zuckerberg), as well as the list of billionaires worldwide.

Speaking at an event in Berlin last April, Jeff Bezos acknowledged MacKenzie's support as instrumental when he founded Amazon in 1994, adding that she did the accounting for the company in its first year.

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"When you have loving and supportive people in your life, like MacKenzie, my parents, my grandfather, my grandmother, you end up being able to take risks," he said at the time.

MacKenzie Bezos is the author of two books, including "The Testing of Luther Albright," a psychological novel about the challenges facing a Sacramento, California father and his family after an earthquake.