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Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos‘ mother, Jacklyn, has died at the age of 78, just two years after the billionaire businessman moved across the country to Florida to spend more time with her.
Bezos, 61, announced his mom’s death in a touching tribute posted to his Instagram account, in which he praised the way in which she cared for both him and his siblings—having become a mother when she was just a teenager.
The businessman, who recently married Lauren Sanchez Bezos in a stunning ceremony in Venice, also shared his mother’s cause of death, revealing that she died after a “long fight with Lewy Body Dementia.”
“Her adulthood started a little bit early when she became my mom at the tender age of 17,” he wrote.
“That couldn’t have been easy, but she made it all work. She pounced on the job of loving me with ferocity, brought my amazing dad onto the team a few years later, and then added my sister and brother to her list of people to love, guard, and nourish.
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“For the rest of her life, that list of people to love never stopped growing. She always gave so much more than she ever asked for.
“After a long fight with Lewy Body Dementia, she passed away today, surrounded by so many of us who loved her—her kids, grandkids, and my dad. I know she felt our love in those final moments. We were all so lucky to be in her life. I hold her safe in my heart forever.”
His wife was one of the first to express words of condolence in the comments section, writing: “We will miss her SO much. Love you.”
Jackie welcomed her son in 1964, when she was just 17 years old and living in Albuquerque, NM. Bezos’ biological father, Ted Jorgensen, was just 19 at the time.
However, Jorgensen struggled with alcohol issues—and the two, who had wed, quickly divorced, with Jackie later moving herself and her infant son back in with her parents.
When Bezos was 4, she wed Mike Bezos, a Cuban immigrant with whom she welcomed two more children; he later legally adopted her first-born son and the Amazon CEO proudly refers to him as his father.
Jacklyn, who was known widely as Jackie, is understood to have died inside her home near Miami, a stunning waterfront estate made up of two adjacent mansions, which were purchased in 2022 via an LLC linked to Bezos.
According to multiple reports at the time, the Coral Gables homes cost a combined $78 million, and have been used by the tech mogul’s mother and father as their primary residence ever since.
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Such was Bezos’ close bond with both of his parents that he announced in 2023 he was relocating from his primary residence in a Seattle suburb to Miami so that he could be closer to his mom and dad, who were already living in the Sunshine State.
“My parents have always been my biggest supporters,” he wrote in a November 2023 Instagram post. “They recently moved back to Miami, the place we lived when I was younger (Miami Palmetto High class of ’82 — GO Panthers!) I want to be close to my parents, and Lauren and I love Miami.”
At the time, despite Bezos’ insistence that his relocation was motivated solely by his desire to live closer to his mom and dad, many noted that the move also had another significant benefit: He’d save about $600 million in income taxes, according to CNBC.
Still, the businessman had long held a connection to Florida—and Miami in particular—having purchased a staggering estate on the city’s famed enclave of Indian Creek Island earlier that year.
The property is actually made up of an adjacent pair of mansions that sit on the west side of the island—which were bought in 2023 for $68 million and $79 million, respectively, according to property records.
Then, in 2024, Bezos made a surprise third property purchase on “Billionaire Bunker,” buying an $87 million six-bedroom mansion that sits some distance from his other two homes on the island.
All three deals were conducted via separate trusts, property records show, and only one of the homes had been publicly listed for sale before being snapped up by Bezos, with two of the deals taking place off market.
According to reports, the third property will be used by Bezos and his now-wife as their primary residence while workers raze the other two homes to make way for the couple’s dream marital compound.
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It’s unclear whether they will hold on to the third abode when this work is completed.
Though he relocated to Florida full time, Bezos still owns a trove of homes in the tony Seattle suburb of Medina, where he lived for many years with his first wife, MacKenzie Scott.
Four years after he founded Amazon, Bezos spent $10 million, along with Scott, buying up two homes that sit on a 5-acre plot in the town of Hunts Point. In 2010, the duo reportedly spent $28 million to extensively renovate the estate, which boasts 310 feet of private shoreline and a private boathouse.
To maximize space (and privacy), Bezos also purchased an adjacent property that same year—a 24,000-square-foot mansion that was reportedly listed for $53 million. It is unclear whether the Amazon CEO paid that hefty sum or managed to snag a discount.
That home would ultimately serve as the business mogul’s primary residence for the next decade until 2023, when he announced his move to Florida.
Though he still holds the keys to much of his Seattle property portfolio, Bezos did offload one home in April of this year, selling it off for an astonishing $63 million, according to the Puget Sound Business Journal.
Bezos made a very hefty profit on the sale of the 9,240-square-foot home, having purchased it for $37.5 million in 2019, the same year he divorced his first wife.