Secrets Revealed – Melinda Gates opens up about divorce from billionaire husband
Melinda Gates has opened up about her ‘unbelievably painful’ divorce from Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates, explaining that ‘she just couldn’t stay in that marriage anymore.
She also shared her struggle to continue working alongside her former spouse even as they were in the midst of splitting up.
Melinda, 58, and Bill, 66, tied the knot in 1994 and were together for 27 years before they announced that their marriage was ending in May 2021.
Now, the computer scientist has opened up about her decision to leave her husband of nearly three decades, telling Fortune magazine in a new interview that the COVID-19 pandemic helped give her the ‘privacy to do what she needed to do.’
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‘I had some reasons I just couldn’t stay in that marriage anymore,’ she explained. ‘But the odd thing about COVID is that it gave me the privacy to do what I needed to do.
‘It’s unbelievably painful, in innumerable ways, but I had the privacy to get through it.’
While they were together, the pair welcomed three children over the years – Jennifer, 25, Rory, 23, and Phoebe, 19.
They also founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation together in 2000, and even after going their separate ways, the former couple continued to run the foundation together – which Melinda said helped her get through it.
‘I kept working with the person I was moving away from, and I needed to show up and be my best self every single day,’ she continued.
‘So even though I might be crying at 9 am and then have to be on a video conference at 10 am with the person I’m leaving, I have to show up and be my best.’
She added that her ‘main concern’ was always ‘protecting her kids’ and that she is thankful that she and Bill have now ‘gotten to the other side.’
And going through the ‘painful’ divorce helped teach the philanthropist that ‘as a leader,’ she can do anything.
She said: ‘I learned as a leader that I could do it. It reminded me that the foundation calls me to be my best.
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‘We work with unbelievable partners around the world who were also struggling during COVID.
‘I was on a video call with a woman who had lost her father, and a week later she’s on a call with me, right?’
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