Jeff Bezos and his wife MacKenzie have agreed on a record-breaking divorce settlement worth at least $35bn - 25 percent of their $144 billion joint Amazon stock holding, allowing Bezos to keep his title as the world's richest man.

Axar.az reports citing Washington Post.

Jeff's 12 percent stake is now worth around $107.5 billion, while MacKenzie will retain a 4% stake in the online retail giant. She will also be giving up her interests in the Washington Post newspaper and space travel firm Blue Origin.

MacKenzie Bezos made the announcement in a tweet — her first and only one since joining the microblogging website this month — stating that she was "grateful to have finished the process of dissolving my marriage to Jeff with support from each other".

The couple, who have four children, had been together since before Bezos set up Amazon in 1994, with MacKenzie Bezos employed as one of the firm's first staff members. Since then, Amazon has generated sales of $232.8bn and, according to to BBC, MacKenzie's shares payout is half what she was entitled to in the initial agreement, yet it is still 10 times more than the second most expensive divorce settlement in history.

Bezos is reportedly in a relationship with former Fox TV news anchor and helicopter pilot Lauren Sanchez, with whom he was having an affair prior to announcing his divorce. After Bezos and his wife announced in January that they would part, US tabloid magazine The National Enquirer published details, including private messages, of the extramarital affair with Sanchez.

Bezos hired an investigator and began to suggest that the publication of his texts was a politically motivated move on account of them being leaked by The National Enquirer. The tabloid’s publisher, American Media Inc., is owned by David Pecker, a long-time friend of US President Donald Trump, and Bezos has justified his claims by citing these ties.

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— MacKenzie Bezos (@mackenziebezos) April 4, 2019