Dolly Parton awarded $100million by Jeff Bezos as Amazon boss pledges to give away most of his fortune

14 November, 2022

Dolly Parton Jeff Bezos

Dolly Parton has been awarded $100million (£84.8m) by Jeff Bezos to put towards charitable causes after the Amazon founder revealed plans to give away most of his fortune.

The country music icon will be able to donate the money to charities of her choice, after it was announced today that Bezos has pledged to give away the majority of his $124billion net worth (£105billion).

Asked in a new interview with CNN whether he intended to donate the majority of his wealth within his lifetime, Bezos replied: “Yeah, I do.”

Bezos’ partner Lauren Sanchez, described Parton as “a woman who gives with her heart and leads with love and compassion in every aspect of her work”.

She added: “We can’t wait to see all the good that you’re going to do with this $100 million award.”

The Bezos Courage & Civility Award aims to recognise leaders who “pursue solutions with courage and civility”.

“Wow! Did you say $100 million?” Parton said at the live ceremony.

“When people are in a position to help, they should help,” she added. “And I know that I’ve always said ‘I try to put my money where my heart is’. And I think you do the same thing,” she told Bezos.

“I will do my best to do good things with this money. Thank you Jeff.”

Previous recipients of the award have included American commentator and activist Van Jones and Spanish chef and humanitarian Jose Andres.

In 2020, Parton donated $1million (£844million) to successful research for the Covid-19 vaccine.

Elsewhere, the singer performed ‘Jolene’ with Judas Priest’s Rob Halford at the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame ceremony last night.

“I’m a rock star now!” Parton said during her acceptance speech (via Rolling Stone), adding: “This is a very special night for me. I’m sure a lot of you knew that back when they said they were gonna put me in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I didn’t feel like I had done enough to deserve that. And I didn’t understand at the time that it’s about more than that. But I’m just so honoured and so proud to be here tonight.”

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