Prince Alwaleed at New York’s Plaza hotel, of which he is part owner.Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has announced that his entire $32 billion fortune to charitable projects, making it one of the largest pledges ever. Prince Alwaleed said his foundation “will help build bridges to foster cultural understanding, develop communities, empower women, enable youth, provide vital disaster relief and create a more tolerant and accepting world.”

In 2013 Vanity Fair profiled the Prince in-depth, portraying him as a man who believes that he who has the most toys wins.

AOC first wrote about Prince Alwaleed bin Talal in 2009, focusing on his unusual commitment — not only to women’s rights — but to hiring and advancing Saudi women in in his businesses and foundation. Women make up 65 percent of positions in his companies, where he discourages them from wearing the veil.

The Prince employs Hanadi Al Hindi, the first Saudi woman to gain a commercial pilot’s license, to fly his personal jet around the world.

The Prince’s fourth wife Princess Ameerah has become one of the strongest voices for women’s empowerment in Saudi Arabia.

Billionaire Alwaleed’s Wife Speaks Out On Saudi Women’s Right to Drive (2011) Forbes

A 2015 update on Princess Ameerah Al-Taweel confirms that the couple divorced in 2013. No longer driven in chauffeur-driven limousines, the Princess is content driving her own £15,000 Mini Cooper. She has an international license to drive and when she is in Europe or the United States, she loves to drive. Princess Ameerah does not drive in Saudi Arabia, where it remains illegal — but with debate about moderating driving restrictions.

Among those ‘leading the way’, said Ameerah, is Prince Turki bin Abdullah Al Saud, a young royal and Governor of the Riyadh Province who is also a Leeds University PhD candidate.

Princess Ameerah, pictured with Chelsea Clinton.Chelsea Clinton says of the Princess: “Ameerah’s advocacy on behalf of Saudi women has provided a tremendous contribution to how we think about the rights of girls and women around the world.”

Princess Ameerah says that she and her former husband remain ‘great friends’, and she still describes the Prince as ‘my mentor’.

Princess Ameerah Al-Taweel Wife of Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Interview on NBC-TODAYSHOW2011

Glamour magazine ran a short profile on Ameerah, photographed below, in November 2014.

Al-Taweel keeps her issues front and center by asking her nearly one million Twitter and Instagram followers to stay involved, most recently by donating vital supplies to Syrian refugees—supplies she then took to the camps herself. “Saudi women are doing incredible things, and we’re making progress all the time,” she says. “I want to be the one women look to when they tell their daughters, ‘Look, she got a divorce and see what she’s doing now? She’s an independent woman. She’s doing something good for her country. She’s a role model.’”