As he celebrates his birthday on January 12, here are 13 things you probably didn't know about Jeff Bezos.
His mother, Jacklyn Bezos, gave birth to him when she was a teenager.
Jeff Bezos in 1997. Paul Souders/Getty Images
According to CNBC, Bezos, then Jacklyn Gise Jorgensen, was barely 17 years old and a junior in high school when she gave birth to her son in 1964. At the time, her high school administrators told her she would not be permitted to finish her education there.
After she was allowed to return under strict conditions, Jacklyn Bezos graduated and later divorced from Jeff Bezos' biological father, Ted Jorgensen, after less than a year of marriage. Jeff Bezos was just over a year old at the time. She struggled to make ends meet while working as a secretary and, at one point, didn't even have enough income to afford a phone, CNBC reported.
Determined to make life better for her and her son, Bezos enrolled in college classes with professors who permitted her to bring her infant along. It was there that she met and eventually married Mike Bezos, a Cuban immigrant who would give Jeff Bezos his last name and step in as his father.
Bezos' biological father was once a circus performer.
According to the 2013 biography of Jeff Bezos by Brad Stone, "The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon," the now-billionaire's biological father was a unicyclist and circus performer. When Stone tracked down Jorgensen to interview him for his biography, he had reportedly not seen his son in decades and hadn't realized he was his biological father. Jorgensen reached out to his son and the two made amends, with Bezos telling him "he harbored no ill will towards Jorgensen at all," according to Stone.
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