Bill Gates and Melinda Gates announced their divorce in May 2021, and Us Weekly is revisiting their 27-year marriage
Create a free account to access exclusive content, play games, solve puzzles, test your pop-culture knowledge and receive special offers.announced their plans to divorce in May 2021, which came as a shock to many after 27 years of marriage.
“After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage,” theyon May 3, adding that they “no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in this next phase of our lives.” The couple met in 1987 when Melinda started working at Microsoft, the company Bill founded. After the romance got serious, Bill made a pro/con list for whether he should propose , and they decided to embark on a life together. Bill and Melinda married in 1994, the same year they launched the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The two welcomed daughter Jennifer in 1996, son Rory in 1999 and daughter Phoebe in 2002.“Working together as well as raising a family together, there’s a certain intensity to that,” Bill said in a 2019 Facebook Live. “But we’re very lucky because we mostly see things the same way, the goals are very much the same.”announced their plans to divorce in May 2021, which came as a shock to many after 27 years of marriage. “After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage,” theyon May 3, adding that they “no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in this next phase of our lives.” The couple met in 1987 when Melinda started working at Microsoft, the company Bill founded. After the romance got serious, Bill made a pro/con list for whether he should propose , and they decided to embark on a life together. Bill and Melinda married in 1994, the same year they launched the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The two welcomed daughter Jennifer in 1996, son Rory in 1999 and daughter Phoebe in 2002. "Working together as well as raising a family together, there’s a certain intensity to that,” Bill said in a 2019 Facebook Live. “But we’re very lucky because we mostly see things the same way, the goals are very much the same.” Scroll through for a full timeline of Bill and Melinda’s romance:Bill and Melinda meet for the first time while attending a PC trade show in New York City. Bill asked Melinda out several weeks later, and he had to set the date two weeks in advance due to his busy schedule.Bill and Melinda’s first child, Jennifer, is born. Melinda decides to step down from her career to focus on raising her daughter and welcomes son Rory in 1999 and daughter Phoebe in 2002. "Just like in a family with kids, in business, we show up with a united front that this is who we are," Melinda said.The couples’ past charitable organizations reorganize and become the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and they both serve on the board of trustees. Bill says it’s an equal partnership. “In the case of Melinda, it is a truly equal partner,” Bill said in the Netflix doc. “She’s a lot like me in that she is optimistic and she is interested in science. She is better with people than I am. She’s a tiny bit less hardcore about knowing, you know, immunology, than I am.”Their charitable efforts get plenty of public attention, and they’re named Time’s Persons of the Year along with Bono. “We realize that we’ve been extremely fortunate in business, and we want to give back in ways that can do the most good for the most people,” they said in a statement at the time. “But we also believe that everyone has something to offer — time, money, or energy — that can help others.”When Melissa releases her book, she and Bill do several interviews highlighting the strength of their marriage. “I’m always interested in his point of view and I know he’s always interested in mine, I think sometimes our disagreements sharpen the questions that we ask each other,” Melinda said in a 2019 Facebook Live., the court found that the"marriage is irretrievably broken." The judge ordered both parties to comply with the terms of their separation contract but did not award any financial judgment or spousal support. The court also found that the division of property and personal property that the former couple agreed upon is"fair ." No child supported was ordered, either, as the pair's three children are all legal adults. Nearly one year after news of Bill’s 2000 affair with a Microsoft employee made headlines, Melinda broke her silence on the infidelity. “I certainly believe in forgiveness, so I thought we had worked through some of that,” she said during an interview on. “It wasn’t one moment or one specific thing that happened. There just came a point in time where there was enough there that I realized it just wasn’t healthy and I couldn’t trust what we had.” Melinda also acknowledged how “painful” the pair’s split was, adding that being “angry” was “part of the grieving process.” However, she “started on this journey of healing” and felt like she was finally “turning a page in the chapter.”, Melinda revealed that her ex-husband's working relationship with Jeffrey Epstein was one of the factors that led to the couple's split."I did not like that he’d had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein,” she toldThe philanthropist went on to say that she met the late financier"exactly one time" so she could see what kind of person he was."I regretted it from the second I stepped in the door," she recalled."He was abhorrent. He was evil personified. I had nightmares about it afterwards. ... It was awful, and he was awful." When King asked if Bill continued to see Epstein after that meeting, Melinda said that only her ex could answer that."Any of the questions remaining about what Bill's relationship there, those are for Bill to answer," she explained."But I made it very clear how I felt about him." In a statement to CBS, Bill said that he now regrets ever spending time with the disgraced businessman. “Meeting with Epstein was a mistake that I regret deeply,” he told the network. “It was a substantial error in judgement.”"The divorce is definitely a sad thing. I have responsibility for causing a lot of pain to my family. It was a tough year. I feel good that all of us are moving forward now," the billionaire explained in May 2022. In response to a question about his rumored infidelity possibly playing a role in his divorce, Bill replied,"I certainly made mistakes and I take responsibility. I don’t think delving into the particulars at this point is constructive, but yes I caused pain and I feel terrible about that." “But I had the privacy to get through it,” Melinda told the outlet. “I also kept working with the person I was moving away from, and I need to show up and be my best self every single day. So even though I might be crying at 9 a.m. and then have to be on a videoconference at 10 a.m. with the person I’m leaving, I have to show up and be my best. And I learned as a leader that I could do it.” “After careful thought and reflection, I have decided to resign from my role as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,” she wrote. “My last day of work at the foundation will be June 7th.” In a subsequent statement, Bill said he was “sorry” to see Melinda go but was “sure she will have a huge impact in her future philanthropic work.” He added, “As a cofounder and cochair Melinda has been instrumental in shaping our strategies and initiatives, significantly impacting global health and gender equality.”Melinda opened up about how she struggled after her and Bill’s split, calling it “the hardest thing had ever been through in entire life.” “I thought I was going to be married for life,” she said. ”I thought I’d be married 50 plus years. So all of a sudden, despite very much work and counseling, what you had doesn’t actually exist and, for me, I couldn’t go forward. There wasn’t enough trust any longer. It wasn’t something I wished for. I certainly didn’t think I’d be in my late 50s and be divorced.” She added, “It was incredibly challenging.” She credited her survival to “close friends” and “a good therapist,” noting that divorce is “not something I would wish on any family.” However, she noted that “on the other side there can be a lot of beauty” after getting through “the rough patches.” “You would have to put that at the top of the list,” he told the outlet. “There are others but none that matter. The divorce thing was miserable for me and Melinda for at least two years.” Bill added that he does feel “more cheerful now,” despite his regret. “When we got divorced it was tough and then she made the decision to leave the foundation — I was disappointed that she took the option to go off,” he continued. “Melinda and I still see each other — we have three kids and two grandchildren so there are family events,” Bill told the U.K. newspaper. “The kids are doing well. They have good values.”'Last Man Standing' Cast: Where Are They Now?By signing up, I agree to the Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive emails from Us Weekly
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