Bill and Melinda Gates announce they are going their separate ways
Billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and philanthropist Melinda Gates announced on Monday that they were separating after 27 years of marriage.
After much thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage, they wrote in a statement posted on Twitter.
Bill and Melinda, who have three children, announced that they will continue to work together in the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which fights poverty and disease, despite their divorce.
The Gates, who believe they can no longer evolve together as a couple, ask the media and the public to respect their privacy and give them the space they need so they can "navigate" these new and distinct paths.
The couple had taken their wedding vows in 1994 in Hawaii. The Gates met after Melinda started working at Microsoft as a product manager in 1987.
In her memoir, published in 2019 under the title Taking Flight, Melinda Gates reflects on her childhood, her life and the struggles she led as the wife of a public figure - and a stay-at-home mother of three.
She relates that their love was born during a working dinner, during which they had shared their common passion for puzzles. During this meal, she recounts beating Bill at a math game.
The foundation they subsequently created in 2000 is by far the most influential private foundation in the world, with an endowment valued at US $ 50 billion.
Last year, Bill Gates, once the richest person in the world, said he was stepping down from Microsoft's board in order to devote himself to philanthropy.
Bill Gates held the position of CEO of Microsoft until 2000, before gradually reducing his involvement in the company he had created in 1975 with Paul Allen. After leaving Microsoft's day-to-day business in 2008, Bill Gates served as Chairman of C.A. until 2014.
They are the second high profile Seattle couple to end their relationship. Before the Gates, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Mackenzie Bezos divorced in 2019.
Since remarried, Mackenzie Bezos, who now runs his own philanthropic activities, received a 4% share of Amazon's business, which is worth more than US $ 36 billion.
