Bill and Melinda Gates: Why Will Your Children Earn So Much After Divorce?
Tycoons in America are often enemies of inheritance. The fight of who was the richest couple in the world could change that tradition.
Bill and Melinda Gates have been recognized in the world for many things: being nerds, philanthropists, having a perfect life for years. But also because of a very strong thesis shared by many tycoons in the United States. They both know that their fortune is so great that their children would not have enough life to spend it and at the same time that there is no greater harm than not teaching them to carve their own path.
Divorce seems to change the fortunes for the Gates children in that regard. Jennifer, 25, Rory, 21, and Phoebe, 18, did not have high expectations of that money, as their parents had said over and over again that they would give everything to their philanthropic work and that they would hardly receive a “tiny ”Sum of all the fortune of that empire.
In a TED talk, Melinda Gates spoke of that way of looking at life. She assured that she would not let her children grow up in a bubble and that she had done a lot to get them to see the real world. “We went to Tanzania. Jenn has been to Tanzania. All of our children have been to Africa a lot. We did something very different, which was, we decided to spend 2 nights and 3 days with a family. Anna and Sanare are the parents. They invited us to go and stay in their boma. The goats were even there, I think, living in that little hut inside their little enclosure before we arrived, ”she said.
On the question of how to raise children when one is the richest family in the world, Melinda was clear that she did not believe that fortunes should be inherited. “I would say that in general children receive a great education, but you have to make sure they know their own abilities and where they are going, what they are going to do. Our philosophy has been to be very clear with them; most of the money goes to the foundation and we help them find something they are passionate about. We want to strike a balance where they have the freedom to do anything, but not shower them with a lot of money so they end up doing nothing. So far, they are very dedicated, excited to make their own way, ”she said.
Bill Gates has said the same. In an interview for Reddit, he said that “I definitely think that leaving the children a huge sum of money is not a favor for them. The media said that the Gates would be thinking of giving each one $ 10 million and letting them build their way. Among the dozens of rumors that there are about the divorce agreement, it has been said that this could be the sum that is once assessed for them, since the family's accounts are going to be put on the table.
Divorce of the Year
Bill and Melinda, she is as nerdy as he, always gave the impression of being the perfect billionaire couple, never reflecting the arrogance or the typical fights of other couples of their class. They also won the admiration of the world, because they have shed much of their wealth in search of solutions to problems such as poverty and disease.
But last week they stunned the planet with an unexpected twist. "We can no longer grow as a couple," they said, announcing that they are leaving blankets after 27 years of union.
Later, he insisted with this request: "Will you go out with me for two weeks starting on Friday?", And she replied: "That is not spontaneous." After a while, he called her at her house and asked, "Is this spontaneous enough for you?"
After seven years of dating, the transition to marriage was not easy. He was a workaholic, so it took Melinda a long time to convince him to take a vacation.
Not even the decision to bring Melinda down the aisle was spared Gates's tendency to analyze everything mathematically. On a blackboard he wrote down the pros and cons of getting married, "but inside her was the soul of that tender, warm and curious man," in her words.
They were married on January 1, 1994 and, perhaps, from there the cracks began to form surreptitiously that have now ruined their happiness.
At that time, he was already one of the richest men on the globe and had the prestige of being the genius who revolutionized society with the popularization of the computer, the PC. Not only was he at his peak as head of Microsoft, but he was also beginning to emerge as a world leader, which forced him to travel all the time.
In a month he could cover India, China and countries in Africa, while she stayed at home taking care of her children, Jennifer, Rory and Phoebe, now 25, 21 and 18 years old, respectively.
Melinda found it hard to deal with and worried about becoming "invisible." Her "I was very frustrated and she would say to Bill, 'This is too much and you're never home.' So he would put his hand on my knee and say, 'Melinda, wherever we go we will always be together.'
They nurtured her love story with details such as a passion for The Great Gatsby, the celebrated novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. They founded a reading club, which still exists today, and they took a liking to meditation.
If they walked in the field, he always went ahead, making sure there were no cobwebs, as she hates them.
Gates' sisters say that he was always very shy and that Melinda's great job was to get him out of himself. While he focused on facts and statistics, she focused on heart and emotion.
Likewise, she did not "spoil" him at home for being so rich. "He washes the dishes, takes the children to school and takes the dog out," she said in an interview, in which she also reported that every afternoon they left their twin offices at the foundation to have dinner with their children.
"They were simple and never fell into the wealth trap," said a close friend.
But in recent years they faced several crises. When he left his position as a director of Microsoft and other of his companies, it was just to spend more time with the family. But neither that nor other efforts worked.
There has been no confirmed third-party dispute, though the revelation has caused a sensation that since they got married, they agreed that he could spend "a long weekend" each year with his ex-girlfriend Ann Winblad.
There has also been talk of Zhe ‘Shelly’ Wang, an interpreter who worked at the Gates foundation.
The woman denied it, but she has drawn attention that it has not been clarified with whom the alleged affair would have been, if with Bill or with Melinda.
The other big question is what will happen to fortune. The United States press assures that they were married without a prenuptial agreement and that the laws of the state of Washington consecrate the partition by halves.
However, in the divorce complaint, she asks that a "separation contract" that they already have be honored.
A fabulous fortune is certainly at stake. The Gates have $ 129.3 billion, according to Forbes, although for others the sum is $ 146 billion.
They are the largest landowners in the United States, with possessions equal to the size of Hong Kong.
Throughout the country they also have several houses, the main of which, Xanadú 2.0, in Seattle, measures more than 6,000 square meters and has six kitchens, a ballroom for 150 people and garages for its 23 cars, to name just some luxuries.
They own several airplanes, collections and shares in Microsoft, Four Seasons and Canadian National Railway, among other firms. If they split everything in half, Melinda would become the second richest on the planet, after Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, who owns $ 83 million, and above MacKenzie Scott, Bezos's ex.
