Bill Gates and Melinda Gates Are Set to Put an End to A 27 Years Old Marriage
Bill Gates and Melinda Gates Are Set To Put an End To A 27 Years Old Marriage
Bill and Melinda Gates announced on Monday that they were divorcing after 27 years of marriage. However, they would continue to work together at their namesake philanthropic foundation, shocking the world of philanthropy.
Bill Gates, Microsoft's billionaire founder, and Melinda Gates, an author and businesswoman, announced their separation in an identical statement posted to their respective Twitter accounts.
"Over the last 27 years, we've raised three extraordinary children and established a foundation that makes people live healthy, productive lives," the statement read. "While we remain committed to that mission and will continue to work together at the foundation, we no longer believe we can grow as a couple in this next stage of our lives."
The couple, who met at Microsoft and married in 1994 in Hawaii, requested anonymity.
The couple filed a joint petition for dissolution of marriage in King County Superior Court in Seattle, stating that the marriage was irretrievably broken.
According to Reuters, the couple asked the court to approve their asset division agreement but did not provide details.
Bill Gates, 65, co-founded Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975.
According to Forbes, net worth of Bill Gates is estimated to be $130.5 billion, and he has donated $35.8 billion in Microsoft stock to the couple's foundation.
Last year, he announced that he would resign from Microsoft's board of directors to devote his full attention to his work as co-chair of the foundation.
Melinda Gates, 56, is the co-chair of the foundation and the founder of Pivotal Ventures, an investment and incubation firm focused on advancing the interests of American women and families.
According to its website, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was founded in 2000 and is with net assets of $43.3 billion at the end of 2019.
In 2019, the foundation distributed $5.1 billion to grantees in 135 countries and employed 1,602 people.
The foundation announced in 2020 that it would commit more than $1.75 billion to support the global response to COVID-19.
Since its day one, the foundation has distributed more than $54.8 billion in direct payments through its health, development, and climate initiatives.
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The pair "will continue to collaborate to shape and approve foundation strategies, advocate for foundation issues, and set the organization's overall direction," according to a statement from the Gates Foundation.
The Gates' divorce is the second high-profile split among the ultra-wealthy in technology in recent years. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott, his wife of 25 years, divorced in 2019.
Scott, an author and philanthropist, later pledged to donate $5.7 billion of her fortune to charities addressing racial justice and food insecurity in 2020. Earlier this year, she married Dan Jewett, who worked as a chemistry teacher at her children's school.
According to David Callahan, founder of the Insider Philanthropy website said it is too early to determine the impact of the divorce on the Gates Foundation.
Melinda Gates, who recently adopted the name Melinda French Gates, has shifted her focus to women and girls, securing Scott's support for a $40 million gender equality fund that will make its first awards later this year.
“You can envision two distinct tracks in which they work together at the foundation and each pursues their own independent philanthropy outside the foundation,” Callahan told the Associated Press.
“Nobody is aware of the terms of their divorce settlement. However, if Melinda Gates inherits a portion of that wealth and establishes her own foundation, it will be among the largest in America.”
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