Whenever I think of Miranda Kerr, I’m always a bit surprised that she’s still married to Evan Spiegel. I still remember when they started up, and how thrilled Miranda was to finally be attached to a billionaire. Still, they’ve always seemed to be such an odd couple, and in recent years, they only go out together in public maybe once or twice a year. Miranda was so busy having babies for several years as well – she has three sons with Evan, an 8-year-old, a 6-year-old and a 2-year-old, and that’s in addition to Flynn Bloom, her 15-year-old son with Orlando Bloom. Well, Evan and Miranda are still married and they are incredibly generous with their charitable giving. Honestly, good on them. Miranda and Even donated millions to pay off Californians’ medical debt.
Snap Chief Executive Evan Spiegel and his wife, supermodel Miranda Kerr, have helped pay off $550 million in medical debt for more than 261,000 Californians. The couple made a multimillion-dollar donation to Undue Medical Debt, a nonprofit that provides debt relief to people in financial need. The organization acquires medical debt in bulk from hospitals, physician groups, collection agencies and other groups for a fraction of the cost.
“When someone you love is sick. All you want to do is focus on helping them get better,” Kerr said in a video with Spiegel. “That’s why we wanted to support this effort and help relieve medical debt, so families can focus on caring for their loved ones and really supporting their healing.”
The couple and the nonprofit didn’t disclose the exact amount of the donation, but a small gift can go a long way. Every $10 donated to Undue Medical Debt relieves an average of $1,000 in medical debt. The gift comes as Americans struggle with the medical debt and rising cost of living. California is one of the most expensive states to live in because of soaring housing costs and energy prices. Concerns about wealth inequality have sparked heated political debates about how much billionaires should contribute.
In the United States, 1 in 4 adults are in medical debt, said Undue Medical Debt President and Chief Executive Allison Sesso in a statement. “It’s a growing crisis undermining healthcare access, economic wellbeing and mental health and we’re so grateful that Evan Spiegel and Miranda Kerr share our belief that no one should go bankrupt because of a cancer diagnosis and no family should have to choose between insulin and groceries,” she said.
Californians whose medical debt have been paid off will start receiving a letter in mid-July from Undue Medical Debt informing them of the debt relief. Individuals can’t request debt relief because the nonprofit acquires bundled debt for thousands of people at once. Those who qualify for debt relief either earn at or below 400% of the federal poverty level or have medical debt that is more than 5% of their income, the nonprofit says on its website.
San Diego County residents benefited the most from the donation with total medical debt relief through the couple’s gift totaling roughly $99 million and affecting 40,369 people. In Los Angeles County, the gift provided $26.7 million in medical debt relief to 17,466 people, according to the nonprofit.
Spiegel, whose net worth is roughly $2 billion, and Kerr have helped relieve debt for others in the past. In 2022, the couple paid off the student loans for the Otis College of Art and Design’s graduating class. In 2025, Spiegel was among business leaders and philanthropists who helped form the Department of Angels, a group that aims to help L.A.’s fire recovery efforts. The California Community Foundation, Snap, Spiegel and Snapchat co-founder Bobby Murphy committed $10 million to help start that group.
I’m trying to track the numbers here – are they saying that Miranda and Evan donated at least $125.7 million between San Diego and LA? That’s astounding if true. But it’s not! I just realized something about Undue Medical Debt – they’re buying people’s medical debt and in essence settling those debts for a fraction of the debt’s face-value. As in, the $125.7 million figure (between San Diego and LA’s now-settled debt) is the technical amount “owed,” but the debts are being settled for a fraction of that. This is like when credit card companies sell off their debts to third-party collection agencies. What Miranda and Evan actually did was donate to Undue Medical Debt so that the charity could act as a collection agency and “buy debt” only to erase it.
This brings up something I’ve always believed: when you’re a wealthy person and you make a huge charitable donation or endowment, you should absolutely publicize it. I know people are like “it’s classier to keep it secret” but if you publicize the donation with the specific dollar amount, it actually raises awareness of the charity/cause and drives more donations.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
