Bill and Melinda Gates, one of the world’s most powerful couples, announced yesterday they are divorcing after nearly 30 years of marriage, stating that they could no longer “grow together”.
Mr Gates, the 65-year-old founder of Microsoft, one of the world’s wealthiest men, posted a statement on Twitter revealing that he and wife 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 shatter the worlds of philanthropy, public health and business.
Their separation also would affect the fate of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – the world’s largest charitable organisation– which, among other Programmes, has donated tens of billions of dollars since it was formed in 2000. In the past year alone, the Foundation made a contribution of $250m to fight the Covid-19 pandemic with a focus on the development and distribution of vaccines around the world.
The split could also be one of the most expensive in history. Mr Gates is the fourth wealthiest man in the world and together the couple is worth an estimated $127bn.
Bill and Melinda (56) started dating in 1987 after meeting at a New York trade show. Mr Gates had founded Microsoft 12 years earlier and was already worth several billion dollars.
When Bill, who is known to book out his day in five-minute slots, initially asked her if they could go out “two weeks from tonight”, Melinda responded: “That’s not spontaneous enough for me.”
Melinda, a Texas-born daughter of an aerospace engineer and a housewife, statred to work at Microsoft as a project manager before she was appointed as General Manager of Information Products in the early 1990s.
