My mother had me when she was 17: Jeff Bezos testifies before US Congress

Amazon founder and CEO talks about personal life and narrates the difficulties the company faced in initial years of its existence

International News: Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO, spoke about his personal life and narrated the difficulties his company faced in its initial years when he testified before the US Congress. “I’m Jeff Bezos. I founded ‘Amazon’ 26 years ago with the long-term mission of making it Earth’s most customer-centric company. My mom, Jackie, had me when she was a 17-year-old high school student in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Being pregnant in high school was not popular in Albuquerque in 1964. It was difficult for her,” he said in his testimony before the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law .

The world’s richest man said that when the school tried to kick out his mother, his grandfather went to bat for her. “After some negotiation, the principal said, “OK, she can stay and finish high school, but she can’t do any extracurricular activities, and she can’t have a locker.” My grandfather took the deal, and my mother finished high school, though she wasn’t allowed to walk across the stage with her classmates to get her diploma,” he said. He further revealed that determined to keep up with her education, she enrolled in night school, picking classes led by professors who would let her bring an infant to class.

‘My dad’s name is Miguel’

“She would show up with two duffel bags–one full of textbooks, and one packed with diapers, bottles, and anything that would keep me interested and quiet for a few minutes. My dad’s name is Miguel. He adopted me when I was four years old,” said the Amazon CEO. “He was 16 when he came to the United States from Cuba as part of Operation Pedro Pan, shortly after Castro took over. My dad arrived in America alone. His parents felt he’d be safer here. His mom imagined America would be cold, so she made him a jacket sewn entirely out of cleaning cloths, the only material they had on hand,” added Bezos. “We still have that jacket; it hangs in my parents’ dining room.”