Bill and Melinda Gates announce divorce after 27 years of marriage
Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife, businesswoman Melinda, announced Monday that they are divorcing after 27 years of marriage.
"After much thought and work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage," they said in a joint statement posted on Twitter.
The couple met in the late 1980s when Melinda joined Microsoft.
The two began their relationship in 1987, married in 1994 and have three children together.
Together they created the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, through which they have donated billions of dollars in the fight against infectious diseases and promoted the vaccination of minors.
The foundation, created in 2000, has become one of the world's largest philanthropic organizations with funding of some US $ 50 billion.
"We can no longer continue to grow as a couple"
In their statement, Bill and Melinda refer to all their achievements as a couple, from "their three incredible children" to the foundation that "works around the world to enable everyone to lead a healthy and productive life."
— Bill Gates (@BillGates) May 3, 2021
"We continue to share our confidence in that mission and we will continue working together in the foundation, but we believe that we can no longer continue to grow together as a couple in this next phase of our lives," they said.
The two, along with investor Warren Buffett, are behind the Giving Pledge initiative, which urges billionaires to commit to donating most of their wealth to charity.
Bill Gates is the fourth richest person in the world, according to Forbes, which estimates his fortune at about $ 124 billion.
Last year, he resigned from his position as a board member at Microsoft, the company he founded in 1975 with Paul Allen, to pursue charitable activities.
The couple requested privacy for their family at this time, while their statement has already captured thousands of tweets and comments shortly after being published.
Your beginnings as a couple
Melinda joined the Microsoft team as a product manager in 1987, and she and Bill Gates sat down together for a working dinner that same year in New York.
They started dating and, as Bill explained in a Netflix documentary, they both quickly began to develop strong feelings for each other: "There were only two possibilities: either we split up or we got married."
Melinda explained that she discovered that Bill was methodical even in the "matters of the heart", writing lists on a white board with the "advantages and disadvantages of getting married."
They were married in 1994 on the island of Lanai, Hawaii, hiring all the helicopters in the area so that there were no unwanted guests flying over their wedding, according to local press.
