Gates announce divorce after 27 years of marriage
Bill and Melinda Gates, one of the world’s most powerful couples, announced yesterday they were divorcing after nearly 30 years of marriage, saying they could no longer ‘‘grow together’’.
Bill Gates, the 65-year-old co-founder of Microsoft, posted a statement on Twitter revealing that he and wife Melinda made the decision after a ‘‘great deal of thought and work’’ and that they were entering the ‘‘next phase’’ of their lives.
‘‘After a great deal of thought and a lot of work, we have made the decision to end our marriage,’’ it read.
‘‘Over the last 27 years, we have raised three incredible children and built a foundation that works all over the world to enable all people to lead healthy, productive lives.
‘‘We continue to share a belief in that mission and will continue to work together at the foundation, but we no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in this next phase of our lives.’’
The divorce of the famously charitable couple is likely to send shock waves through the worlds of philanthropy, public health and business.
Their separation also leaves questions over the fate of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – the world’s largest charitable organisation – which has donated tens of billions of dollars since it was formed in 2000.
In the last year alone, the Gates Foundation made a contribution of US$250 million (NZ$350m) to fight the Covid-19 pandemic and has focused on the development and distribution of vaccines around the world.
It could also become one of the most expensive in history. Bill Gates is the fourth wealthiest man in the world and together the couple is worth an estimated US$127 billion.
Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder, split his US$150b fortune with his wife MacKenzie in 2019 after he was revealed to be having an affair.
Bill and Melinda, 56, began dating in 1987 after meeting at a New York trade show. Bill Gates had founded Microsoft 12 years earlier and was already worth several billion dollars.
When Bill Gates, who is known to book out his day in five-minute slots, initially asked her out, inquiring if they could go out ‘‘two weeks from tonight’’, Melinda Gates responded: ‘‘That’s not spontaneous enough for me.’’
Melinda Gates, a Texas-born daughter of an aerospace engineer and a housewife. went on to work at Microsoft as a project manager before she was appointed as General Manager of Information Products in the early 1990s.
They married in a small and intimate wedding in Hawaii in 1994 and Melinda Gates left Microsoft two years later to concentrate on starting a family.