Bill and Melinda Gates announced they are getting a divorce after a 27 year long marriage. They say, “we no longer believe we can grow together as a couple”.
The couple announced the news on Twitter. They said they have worked on their relationship and thought a lot about it, but have decided to end the marriage.
Melinda joined Bill’s Microsoft firm in the 1980s, which is where they first met, and the couple have three children.
Together they run the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, an organisation that has spent billions fighting causes such as infectious diseases and encouraging vaccinations in children. The foundation focuses primarily on public health, education and climate change, and its grants helped research and vaccines during the Covid pandemic. It was founded in 2000 and in 2019 had net assets of more than $43bn.
The Gates are behind the Giving Pledge, which requests billionaires give away the majority of their wealth to good causes.
In the 1970s Bill Gates co-founded Microsoft, which is now the world’s biggest software company. This is where he made his money from. According to Forbes, he is the fourth wealthiest person in the world, and is worth $124bn (£89bn).
The billionaire couple say they intend to continue working together at the foundation, as they both still believe in the mission.
They ask for space and privacy for their family through this time as they navigate a new life.
The couple’s history
In 1987, Melinda, now 56, joined Microsoft as a product manager. She sat with Bill at a business dinner in New York that year.
They soon began dating, and married in 1994 on the Hawaiian island of Lanai.
Last year, Bill, 65, stepped down from Microsoft’s board to focus on his philanthropic activities.
At first Melinda struggled in her private life as the wife of a famous figure and and stay at home mother of three. However, working together at the Foundation made their relationship better. The couple say they are equal partners and Melinda believes that “men and women should be equal at work”.
In 2015, Melinda founded her own company, Pivotal Ventures, an investment company focused on women and families. She wanted to ensure that people weren’t held back because of their gender, and convey the message that “empowered women transform societies”.
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