The Anatomy of a Centibillion Divorce: Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos are Splitting Up

All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Tolstoy began Anna Karenina with that line. But one wonders if that is applicable all the time. One example: divorce.

It's the oldest tale in the book. You are rich; you are middle-aged; you are a man; crisis. You buy a Porsche; you drop some weight; you hit the gym; you get jacked. Chances are your one-time sweetheart does not seem so sweet or young to you anymore. Society rewards salt and pepper in men. Distinguished, it labels them. Women? Shit out of luck. Outcome: divorce.

"Growing apart," "falling out of love," "at different places in our lives," "irreconcilable differences" are all familiar ingredients in the celebrity divorce cocktail we have all consumed with practised disinterest. The Tolstoyian unhappiness in a family doesn't seem so unique after all.