USA (Commonwealth Union)_ A new report has shed fresh light on the financial aftermath of the divorce between Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, revealing one of the largest post-divorce transfers of wealth ever recorded. According to tax filings, Bill Gates donated approximately $7.88 billion in 2024 to Pivotal Philanthropies, the charitable foundation founded by his former wife. The donation was made three years after the couple finalized their divorce in 2021 and has reignited public interest in what is widely considered the world’s most expensive separation.
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Gates, now 70, has an estimated net worth of $118 billion. The donation forms part of a larger financial agreement the former couple reached when Melinda French Gates stepped down from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in May 2024. At the time of her departure, French Gates announced that Bill Gates had committed $12.5 billion to support her future work focused on women, families, and social equity. The recent report confirms that roughly two-thirds of that pledge was delivered in 2024. Representatives for Pivotal Philanthropies stated that the full $12.5 billion commitment has now been met.
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However, public records currently reflect only the $7.88 billion transfer, as the remaining funds may have been donated in 2025 or routed through one of French Gates’ private business entities, such as Pivotal Ventures, which is not required to file public tax returns. The impact of the donation has been dramatic. Pivotal Philanthropies, launched in 2022 following the divorce, reported assets of just over $600 million at the end of 2023. By the close of 2024, after receiving Gates’ donation and accounting for its own grantmaking, the foundation held approximately $7.4 billion, instantly placing it among the largest charitable organizations in the United States.
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Bill and Melinda Gates announced the end of their 27-year marriage in May 2021. While they separated personally, they continued to co-chair the Gates Foundation until French Gates’ resignation last year. In later interviews, she acknowledged that trust issues played a central role in the breakup, including Bill Gates’ past affair with a Microsoft employee and growing concerns surrounding his association with Jeffrey Epstein, which became public in 2019. However, in a recent interview, Bill Gates described the divorce as the mistake he most regrets. And French Gates, speaking on a talk show with Stephen Colbert, explained her decision more plainly saying, if there is no honesty in a relationship, then there will be no trust, and without trust, there’s no intimacy, which is why she had to leave.
The former couple share three children and one grandchild. In 2025, Melinda French Gates confirmed she is in a relationship with Philip Vaughn, chairman of the Seattle-based beverage app Tavour. Over the years, several high-profile divorces have carried staggering price tags. Still, the Gates divorce stands out, both for its immense financial scale and for the ongoing consequences that continue to unfold years after the marriage ended. Some of the most expensive celebrity divorces in history reveal the high cost of high-profile breakups. Topping the list is Bill and Melinda Gates, whose 2021 divorce involved an estimated $76 billion, followed by Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott’s 2019 split at around $38 billion.
Earlier cases include art dealer Alec Wildenstein and Jocelyn Wildenstein in 1999, with a $2.5 billion settlement, and media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s divorce from Anna dePeyster the same year, estimated at $1.7 billion. More recent high-value separations include bond king Bill Gross and his wife Sue in 2017 at roughly $1.3 billion; Bernie Ecclestone and Slavica in 2009 at about $1.2 billion; and casino tycoon Steve Wynn’s 2010 divorce from Elaine Wynn, which reached $1 billion. Joining that tier are South Korean billionaire Chey Tae-won and Roh Soh-yeong in 2024, also estimated at $1 billion, while oil magnate Harold Hamm’s 2012 divorce from Sue Ann Arnall came in just under that at $974.8 million. Rounding out the list is arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi’s 1980 divorce from Soraya Khashoggi, estimated at $874 million.
