Billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and former journalist Lauren Sanchez are having an extravagant multi-day wedding in Venice this weekend that’s already attracted the media, celebrity guests—and more than a few protestors. The event is the culmination of a months long production by wedding planners and, very likely, by teams of lawyers who have combed through the couple’s complex finances to create an ironclad prenuptial agreement.
Both Bezos and Sanchez have been married and divorced previously, notes Marilyn Chinitz, matrimonial attorney to several billionaires and celebrities like Tom Cruise and Michael Douglas. And Bezos famously did not have a prenup during that first marriage; MacKenzie Scott, his ex-wife and an author and philanthropist, received Amazon shares worth tens of billions in their divorce. Sanchez, too, is coming into the relationship with significant wealth, though on a different scale (she and ex-husband Patrick Whitesell reportedly had a prenup that dictated the division of their assets when they divorced in 2019).
Representatives for Bezos and Sanchez did not immediately respond to a request for comment about whether the couple had a prenup, but Chinitz, who does not represent either party, says the pair likely had teams of lawyers and other professionals—estate lawyers, cross-border tax lawyers, business lawyers, forensic accountants, wealth advisers, public relations reps—working on the agreements for months to a year or longer.
Such an extensive process would reflect the incredible complexity of the couple’s finances. In the case of Bezos, the Amazon shares that have been the primary source of his riches gained significant value during his marriage to Scott, who is considered to have played a major role in creating that wealth. Even with a prenup in place, she likely would have come out of the marriage with significant assets given it was marital property, says Chinitz. For his second marriage, Bezos will enter it already possessing billions of dollars, investments in dozens of companies, multiple homes, yachts, and other assets. Meanwhile, both Bezos and Sanchez have children from their previous relationships.
Chinitz notes that, based on documents she has drafted for other uber-wealthy couples, any Bezos-Sanchez prenup would very likely contain many non-financial provisions to go along with ones apportioning money and possessions. Those might include non-disclosure agreements and non-disparagement clauses related to media activity, confidential business information, the scope of the prenup negotiations and so on.
“Given Jeff is one of the wealthiest people in the world…privacy issues and confidentiality management are also key considerations,” says Paul Karger, CEO of multifamily office and private investment firm TwinFocus. “There should be clear understanding on the use, and misuse, of media and social media outlets, storage and retention of documentation, [and] restriction on public interviews.”
At the end of the day, both Bezos and Sanchez are likely looking at this not as a wedding but also a “business transaction,” says Lauren Crane, partner at New York-based Bender & Crane and expert on prenuptial agreements who was not involved with Bezos or Sanchez.
Prenups not a time for secrets
Not every spouse-to-be is totally forthcoming when it comes to the assets they are bringing to a marriage and, in the case of the ultra-wealthy, some even use “secret” trusts and LLCs to conceal their money. Chinitz, though, says that is unlikely for someone of Bezos’s level of wealth. He and his team would likely disclose all of his assets, businesses, properties, etc., as would Sanchez, to ensure that the agreement would hold up in the case of a possible divorce.
“You never want to be in a position as a spouse turned litigant where the other side is moving to set aside the agreement on the basis that you withheld information and that you did not disclose your assets,” says Chinitz.
In the case of the uber-wealthy, doing this takes a team of professionals on both sides, including “layers of lawyers,” accountants, and tax pros to decipher the ins-and-outs of each party’s assets. Understanding and transparency is key to ensuring the resulting prenup document holds up in court in the event of a separation. Crane says Sanchez is likely very familiar with this, given she has money of her own and was previously divorced. It puts her an advantage over, say, a 20-something who gets married to someone with money and no idea what they’re doing.
“She may not have as much as him, but she still has money,” says Crane. “There’s no way that she’s winding up on the street if they got divorced.”
Also typically included in prenups of the ultra-wealthy is a provision to discourage contesting it in the event of a divorce. In fact, doing so could mean the litigant ends up with nothing.
“If a litigant decides that they want to set aside the agreement when there’s a divorce and they claim there was coercion and duress, you can have very penalizing provisions in an agreement,” says Chinitz. “There has to be real consequence to trying to set aside and invalidate an agreement that was fully negotiated.”
Fair and reasonable agreement
While the wealth Bezos has already accrued would be considered separate property from Sanchez’s, Chinitz says the agreement would have to be “fair and reasonable.” In other words, if they were to divorce, the partner coming in with fewer assets wouldn’t be left destitute.
“The courts look at the financial disclosure to also make sure that the agreement is fair, reasonable, not the result of fraud, and that the terms are not unconscionable,” she says.
It would be typical for the two to draft a title-based agreement: Anything currently in Bezos’s name belongs to him, anything in Sanchez’s name belongs to her, and marital assets are in both names. Chinitz calls this the “cleanest” agreement couples can have.
That said, it is also common for the wealthy to craft property settlement agreements. These call for the less wealthy spouse to agree to waive future claims against assets in exchange for a fixed amount of money. Commonly, these take the form of a lump sum payment after a certain number of years of marriage, or a specified amount of money each year of marriage. This would be in addition to any support she would be entitled to as well as the assets in both of their names (like homes), though Crane says it is typical when both spouses are wealthy to waive spousal support and alimony.
A related component of many prenuptial agreements is a sunset clause, which basically means that certain clauses or whole contracts expire after a specified amount of time, say 10 years, or when a milestone is reached, like the birth of a child. For example, the prenup might stipulate that if a couple is married for 15 years the agreement “will disappear,” or it could dissolve when they reach a certain age. Chinitz says she doesn’t expect the Bezos-Sanchez contract to include that, as they are in their 50s and 60s and have children already.
In the event of a divorce, Sanchez is “likely to walk away with a significant amount of money, but nowhere near what his first wife, MacKenzie, got,” she says. “MacKenzie helped create those assets. His wealth existed long before he met or married Lauren Sanchez.”
Portability
While Bezos and Sanchez call South Florida home (a recent development), they have multiple homes in different jurisdictions including Beverly Hills, Hawaii, and New York, and are often traveling on the superyacht Koru. As such, it is important for the prenup to be portable, says Chinitz. Lawyers will ensure that regardless of where they might one day live or possibly divorce, the courts there will be governed by the law of the place they signed the contract.
“If, for some reason, they decide that they’re going to move to Switzerland or to France, then they’re going to retain local counsel there who’s going to draft an agreement that’s identical, the mirror image, to the one that they entered into before they got married,” she says.
Additionally, the prenup would have provisions for legacy-building, gifts, philanthropy, and so on.
“Jeff should have his team of attorneys review all commercial, business, and monetary transactions going forward to make sure everything is consistent with his prenuptial agreement terms and conditions, as well as with philanthropic and multi-generational activities,” says Karger.
‘Til death
All of that said, prenups also dictate what would happen should one of the partners die while the couple is still happily married. In this case, Chinitz expects there to be a complex series of trusts and other assets passing to Bezos’s children, as well as Sanchez’s.
“It’s likely that in the event of his death, he probably will set up a very substantial trust for Lauren, assuming they’re in an intact marriage, and that trust would distribute to her a substantial amount of money annually to cover all of her expenses,” she says. “But then when she dies, the beneficiaries will probably, I would imagine, either go to a foundation or to his children.”
The surviving spouse would also receive their marital assets, including homes, investments, and so on. Additional funds could also be provided to the surviving spouse on top of what was in the trust and held jointly, to provide liquidity immediately, says Chinitz.
Additionally, there could be stipulations like the surviving spouse can remain in the home (assuming it was held only in the dead spouse’s name) until his or her death, and then it passes to their children or another beneficiary.
“He’s known to be a very generous man,” she says. “It’s a blended family of seven kids, and I’m sure he’s going to provide for her children as well. He’s not legally obligated to, because he’s not the father, but I’m sure if it’s a happy marriage, he will make provision for her children as well.”
