How a bike shop owner accidentally discovered he was Jeff Bezos' dad after making 'big mistake'
Reconnecting with family members after years or even decades without contact is always going to create some surprises, but one man from Phoenix, Arizona had the shock of a lifetime when he realized that Jeff Bezos was his son.
Having founded Amazon as an online bookstore in 1994 alongside his then-wife MacKenzie Scott, Jeff Bezos quickly became incredibly wealthy as his shop continued to evolve and transform into the next-day delivery giant we know today.
Bezos is now the third richest man in the world according to Bloomberg's Billionaire Index, possessing an eye-watering net worth of $236,000,000,000 and is only eclipsed by Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk.
He has used his extraordinary wealth to purchase multiple magestic homes, found his very own private space agency which sent celebrities into space this year, and use one of his several mega yachts to sail into his upcoming $10,000,000 wedding in Venice.
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However, he did come from humble beginnings when he was born in Albequerque, New Mexico - and his birth father only recently found out who his son actually was, over 46 years after Bezos was born.
How did Jeff Bezos' dad find out about his son?
As shared by Inside Edition on YouTube, Ted Jorgensen, Bezos' biological father, found out who his son really was when a biographer turned up at his bike shop in 2012.
"He asked me if I knew who Jeff Bezos was, and I said, 'No the name kinda sounds familiar, but I don't know him'," Jorgensen explained. One key reason why his father had no idea his son was one of the richest men in the world was all to do with his name, as when he divorced from Jacklyn Bezos (née Gise) in 1965, their son was called Jeffrey Jorgensen.
It was only after Jacklyn remarried three years later to Mike Bezos and Jeff was adopted that the soon-to-be Amazon founder changed his surname and became, in essence, just another Jeff to Ted Jorgensen.
It was certainly a shock when he realized the notoriety and wealth that his biological son now held all those years later, yet that is precisely the reason why it became so challenging to reconnect.
"Because of who Jeff is, I think it's made an obstacle that wouldn't have been there had he been a garbage collector," explained Ted's wife Linda.
What happened after he realized Bezos was his son?
It's not entirely clear whether Jorgensen was able to reach out and reconnect with his son, but at least one year after the revelation he hadn't yet managed to speak to the Amazon founder, and he later passed away in 2015, aged 70.
He expressed in the interview with Inside Edition that he didn't want a single penny of Bezos' extreme fortune, but instead simply wanted to reconnect and apologize for what happened in his youth.
Describing what he called the 'biggest mistake of his life', Jorgensen details: "I just would like to tell him I used to change your diapers, you know? And just see him, and shake his hand, and tell him he's really done a good job with his life."