Billionaires Bill Gates and Laurene Powell Jobs have more in common than meets the eye. They’re wealthy, generous, and charitable, and while neither believes in leaving their kids a fortune, they certainly agree on giving them a wedding to remember. In fact, the widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs is upping the ante, surpassing Jennifer Gates’ $2 million wedding by more than three times with a fairytale, multi-million-dollar extravaganza.
The world had barely moved on from the Venetian nuptials of billionaire Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez when another high-society celebration began making headlines. Apple heiress Eve Jobs, 27, is set to tie the knot this week with Olympic equestrian gold-medalist fiancé Harry Charles, 26. Their $6.7 million countryside extravaganza in Britain will be attended by close friends and family, including longtime family friend Kamala Harris.
If the guest list and the couple weren’t impressive enough, the prime performer certainly is. The legendary Sir Elton John, one of Steve Jobs’ favorite artists, will make the celebration unforgettable with an hour-long performance reportedly costing $1 million. In a candid 2003 email, part of a ‘Celebrity Playlist’ he curated, Jobs listed Elton’s ‘Where to Now St. Peter’ among his favorite tracks.
The enchanting English village wedding in Oxfordshire, about 60 miles northwest of London, is already shrouded in secrecy and guarded by the Secret Service. According to the Daily Mail, the venue is the ultra‑exclusive Estelle Manor.
The hustle and bustle around the event has grabbed attention. “The town where the wedding is taking place seems to have become a no go zone, with Secret Service operatives and guys who appear to be working for the FBI,” a local source told The Sun. Over the weekend, huge trucks were seen rumbling through the rural lanes, many loaded with Elton John’s technical equipment.
While the quaintness certainly resembles Steve and Laurene’s own understated Yosemite National Park wedding, complete with vegan cake and barely 50 guests, that’s where the comparisons end.
The high-profile wedding affair of their Stanford graduate daughter will be full of frills and fancies and attended by celebrities like Jessica Springsteen, Arctic Monkeys’ Matt Helders, and Princess Beatrice. Tech scions Jennifer and Phoebe Gates, who share more than a common upbringing, education, and love for horses, are thought to be on the guest list as well.
No inheritance for Eve. Laurene Powell Jobs is putting her billions to work for good.
The billionaire, worth an estimated $15 billion, is the founder of Emerson Collective, an organization focused on education, immigration reform, and environmental justice. Rather than leaving her children multibillion-dollar fortunes, she channels her wealth into philanthropy and progressive policy work through the Collective. Owner of the $120 million superyacht Venus, Laurene made her stance clear in a 2020 interview: “I’m not interested in legacy wealth building, and my children know that. Steve wasn’t interested in that. If I live long enough, it ends with me.”
A Stanford graduate, she inherited her late husband’s trust, which included significant shares in Apple and The Walt Disney Company. In 2021, she pledged $3.5 billion to the Waverley Street Foundation, a nonprofit she launched to tackle climate change through community-led solutions, and with Emerson Collective, she plans to give away $28 billion in assets. As for the nearly $7 million wedding of her daughter Eve, it amounts to just around one-two-thousandth of Laurene’s net worth, roughly the same as someone with $2 million spending under $1,000 on a wedding.
