“After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage,” 65-year-old Bill and 56-year-old Melinda said in a surprise joint statement posted to their respective Twitter accounts on May 3. The philanthropists and co-founders of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation added, “We 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… We ask for space and privacy for our family as we begin to navigate this new life.” Since that announcement, several allegations have surfaced about why their marriage may have fallen apart. Keep reading to find out everything we know about Bill and Melinda Gates’ marriage and divorce.
How did Melinda and Bill Gates meet?
Slight scandal alert: He was her boss at Microsoft! At a Microsoft company picnic in 1987—seven years before they tied the knot—Bill Gates flirted with her in the parking lot and asked if she would go out with him in two weeks. She turned him down, The New York Times reported: “‘That’s not spontaneous enough for me,’ she told him. ‘Ask me out closer to the date.’ An hour or two later, Bill Gates phoned her and invited her out for that evening. ‘Is this spontaneous enough for you?’ he asked.”
When did Bill and Melinda Gates get married?
Bill and Melinda Gates (born Melinda French) tied the knot in 1994 in a private ceremony at the Manele Bay Hotel on the Hawaiian island of Lanai—reportedly right next to the property’s golf course, as Bill is an avid golfer. His golf buddies, in fact, include fellow billionaire WarrenBuffett, who attended the wedding. So did such super-rich celebs as Gates’ Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, former U.S. Senator Dan Evans and former WashingtonPost owner Katharine Graham.
Why did Bill and Melinda Gates get divorced?
Rumors have abounded about why Bill and Melinda wanted to end things—but Bill seemed iffy about marriage from the get-go. In the 2019 Netflix doc Inside Bill’s Brain, the couple admitted that Gates had made a marriage pros-and-cons list before he took the plunge. “[He] wanted to be married, but he didn’t know whether he could actually commit to it and [run] Microsoft,” Melinda recalled. Just a few days after the divorce became public, TMZ reported that the split “had been a done deal for months… and they had a plan to announce it back in March.” However, “lawyers for both Bill and Melinda were trying to hash out a divorce settlement and there were still outstanding issues that couldn’t be resolved,” pushing back the date of the big reveal by a couple months. That TMZ story also alleged, “This was not a friendly split… Melinda and most of the family were furious at Bill for various things they claim he had done.”
What did Bill Gates do with Jeffrey Epstein?
A big reason why Melinda started to question her marriage? From what’s been reported, her husband’s friendship with convicted sex offender JeffreyEpstein had a lot to do with it. The New York Times claims that Gates first met Epstein (who committed suicide in a New York City jail cell in August 2019) in 2011, after Epstein had already served 13 months in jail for prostitution of an underage girl. After that first encounter, emails show that Gates praised Epstein’s “charm and intelligence.” The Microsoft founder also wrote about Epstein, “His lifestyle is very different and kind of intriguing although it would not work for me… A very attractive Swedish woman and her daughter dropped by and I ended up staying there quite late.” Sources have alleged that Gates and Epstein hung out dozens of times after their first meeting, including at Epstein’s New York City townhouse and on his private jet. However, Gates told The Wall Street Journalin September 2019 about Epstein, “I met him. I didn’t have any business relationship or friendship with him.”
Did Bill and Melinda Gates get divorced because of Jeffrey Epstein?
In May 2021, The Daily Beast reported that Epstein had counseled Gates on ending his marriage and that “Gates used [his] gatherings at Epstein’s $77 million New York townhouse as an escape from what he told Epstein was a ’toxic’ marriage, a topic both men found humorous, [according to] a person who attended the meetings.” A source also said, “Going to Jeffrey’s was a respite from his marriage. It was a way of getting away from Melinda.” Like the Times, the Daily Beast also claimed that Gates and Epstein hung out “dozens” of times. A Gates rep refuted those statements by telling The Daily Beast, “Bill never received or solicited personal advice of any kind from Epstein— on marriage or anything else. Bill never complained about Melinda or his marriage to Epstein.” However, numerous outlets have since suggested that Melinda’s anger over Bill’s relationship with Epstein directly influenced her decision to seek a divorce.
Did Bill Gates cheat on Melinda Gates?
In June 2021, Vanity Fair reported that Gates’ tenure at the helm of Microsoft was rife with “inappropriate workplace behavior [and] romantic relationships with subordinates,” and that, “for years there have been whispers, within Microsoft and in Gates’s broader professional and social circles, about inappropriate extramarital relationships.” Similarly, The New York Times has reported that Gates could be dogged about asking particular female Microsoft employees out to dinner, although it’s believed that none of those relationships led to full-blown affairs.
How much will Bill and Melinda Gates’ divorce cost?
Vox reported on the day the news of their divorce broke, “The divorce proceedings are sure to be complicated. The Gates family has a net worth approaching $150 billion, and their separation could set records for the largest divorce settlement to date.” The publication noted that this split could even be bigger and costlier than Jeff Bezos’breakup from wife MacKenzie Bezos in 2019, in which she was awarded roughly $37 billion—which was, at the time, the largest divorce settlement ever recorded. In its August 2021 story on the final details of the Gates split, TMZ hinted that Melinda did get more than what MacKenzie got in her divorce. “There was no prenup [and] Bill’s net worth is estimated at more than $130 billion, so the divorce settlement could leave Melinda over $65 billion,” the outlet wrote. TMZ also noted that “Melinda’s been cashing in on the split for months … Bill lined her pockets with nearly $2 billion in stocks the day she filed divorce docs, and the following day, he hooked her up with 25 million shares of Mexican Coca-Cola.” Besides all of that, however, the divorce is relatively cut and dry. “Neither party will get spousal support,” TMZ says. “They have no minor children so there are no child custody or child support issues. The prenup addresses support their kids get as adults.” Next, take a look at the top 4 predictors of divorce.
