Bill and Melinda Gates to divorce after 27 years
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BILLIONAIRE philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates have announced they are divorcing after 27 years of marriage, raising questions over how they will split their fortune and the direction of one of the world’s most powerful charity organizations.
The couple, with a joint fortune estimated at US$130 billion, have channeled billions into charitable work around the globe via their hugely influential Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. They said they would continue their joint work on the foundation, which funds programs in global health, gender equality, education and other causes.
“After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage,” they said in a joint statement, posted on each of their official Twitter accounts on Monday.
“We continue to share a belief in that mission and will continue our work together at the foundation, but we no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in this next phase of our lives,” they wrote.
The announcement comes two years after the divorce of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, another of the world’s wealthiest people, and his wife MacKenzie.
In a joint petition for dissolution of marriage, the couple asserted their legal union was “irretrievably broken,” but said they had reached agreement on how to divide their marital assets. No details of that accord were disclosed in the filing in King County Superior Court in Seattle.
The divorce petition, which states that the couple have no minor children, comes after the youngest of their three offspring recently turned 18.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates, 65, was a geeky teenager when he started what would become the world’s most valuable company, and was for a time the world’s richest man and most prominent philanthropist.
He stepped down as Microsoft chief executive in 2000 to devote more time to philanthropy and later left the board, keeping only the title of “founder and technology advisor.”
Melinda French Gates, 56, who recently added her maiden name on most of her websites and social media, was raised in Dallas and studied computer science and economics at Duke University before joining Microsoft.
She met Bill in 1987 and the pair married in 1994.
In a 2019 Netflix documentary series, Bill described his wife as “truly an equal partner,” while Melinda looked back on some of their first interactions to call him “funny and very high-energy.”
The Seattle-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has become one of the most powerful and influential forces in global public health, spending more than US$50 billion over the past two decades to bring a business approach to combating poverty and disease.
The Gates have backed programs in malaria and polio eradication, child nutrition and vaccines.
The foundation last year committed some US$1.75 billion to COVID-19 relief.
In a separate statement, the Gates Foundation said the couple would remain as co-chairs and trustees of the organization.
“They will continue to work together to shape and approve foundation strategies, advocate for the foundation’s issues, and set the organization’s overall direction,” the foundation’s statement said.
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