Melinda Opens Up About Divorce From Bill Gates: ‘I Knew It In My Soul That...'
Melinda French Gates reflected on the emotional reckoning behind her decision to end her 27-year marriage to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, saying the truth she had long buried eventually rose with a force and she 'knew in my soul." In a candid interview, the 60-year-old philanthropist spoke of the moment that pushed her towards divorce- a decision complicated by decades of shared history, three children and one of the world's largest philanthropic foundations.
'When that voice would come and it would come at different times because of things that had happened outside the marriage that I would later come to learn about. I kept pushing it away," Melinda French Gates revealed.
She admitted that, for years, she felt pressure to hold the relationship together not only for the sake of their family but for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the nonprofit which the couple co-founded and co-chaired during their marriage.
'We had a foundation and that was big and I believed in that work. I still believe in the work of the foundation," she said, adding, 'At some point I had to turn towards my inner voice and I just knew it and I knew it in my soul."
Melinda French Gates said the process of accepting the end of the relationship was long and deliberate, sharing, 'I took marriage and I still do- very, very seriously and it wasn't just two of us involved, it was five of us."
Melinda-Bill Gates' Divorce
The couple first met in 1987 during a Microsoft sales meeting, when Melinda was a product manager and Bill Gates was the company's CEO. After he reportedly asked her out in a parking lot, the two eventually wed on New Year's Day 1994. In 2021, the pair announced their divorce, saying they could no longer 'grow together as a couple in this next phase of life."
The split came a year after their reported separation and public attention soon turned to Bill Gates' ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as well as allegations of infidelity. In 2022, Melinda French Gates said that she had expressed her discomfort about Bill Gates' meetings with Jeffrey Epstein.
'I did not like that he had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein, no. I made that clear to him," she said at the time, adding, 'He was abhorrent. He was evil personified."
Since their split, both have moved on. Melinda French Gates is in a relationship with entrepreneur Philip Vaughn, while Bill Gates is dating Paula Hurd, former tech executive and widow of Oracle CEO Mark Hurd.
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