Bill Gates and Melinda: the couple who were born of rejection and have survived (almost) everything brings to the table the most expensive divorce in history
The richest couple in the world is out of love after 27 years. And although they continue to work together in the foundation that they both preside and that bears their name, Bill Gates and Melinda have just announced that they are ending their marriage. This is the story of a relationship calculated to the millimeter that was born after a rejection.
They met at work in 1987. She was a recent Duke graduate who was just hired as a Microsoft product manager and he was the company's CEO. Melinda (at that time Melinda French), attended a picnic organized by the company and since she was late, she was forced to sit in one of the only two seats that she was free of her. Fifteen minutes later, Bill Gates entered the scene.
Forced by circumstances to sit together, she did notice early on that he was interested. Still, it took her several months to ask her out of it and when Gates made up her mind, Melinda gave her pumpkins. The reason? The scene forced and calculated to the millimeter with which she was not willing to swallow.
It turns out they were found in the parking lot as they left their respective work buildings. Then, after a talk about the university where she had studied, he asked her if she would like to go out for a drink two weeks later. "Two weeks! –Melinda replied- That doesn't seem very spontaneous to me! Nobody knows what to do so long in advance! " What Melinda did do was give her her phone number and just two hours after that conversation, Bill Gates called her.
Perhaps surprised by the spontaneity of the young woman - and of which he was not very abundant - or perhaps dazzled by her safety, Gates proposed to go for a drink and she accepted. Since then (and until now, they have just communicated their divorce via tweet) they have not separated.
Both, in a joint statement, have explained that they had tried to solve the difficulties that the marriage was going through but that, in the end, they have not succeeded. Of course, at all times they have made it clear that they will continue to collaborate in the foundation that they preside and that bears their names, responsible for ensuring global health.
— Bill Gates (@BillGates) May 3, 2021
And it is that that marriage that was forged in the Microsoft parking lot and that did not have, at first, the approval of her family (who did not see with good eyes that she was a partner of her boss) ended up winning one of the greatest fortunes in the world. About $ 200 billion, to be exact.
Bill Gates's not always accurate calculations
There is an image of the now-defunct marriage that has been repeated ad nauseam: a young excited couple who split the wedding cake with laughter. The reason was that Bill Gates had made a quick calculation on the portions that he had not taken into account a piece of cardboard that threw the master plan of Microsoft's brain to the ground. When his already wife found out, he burst out laughing. And so is he.
But it wasn't the only calculation Gates made in the relationship. When they started, he had in mind that the relationship was more "casual" than it ended up being until, finally and after several "I love you" they asked whether they should continue taking steps. One day, and despite the fact that at work they always kept their distance and asked everyone close to her for discretion, she found him writing down pros and cons on a blackboard: those of getting married. And the pros won.
Now, twenty-seven years after that story began, they have decided to end their marriage and, although at first it may not seem like it, finally Bill Gates and Melinda have achieved one of their maxims: to form a team as strong as that of Bill Gates Sr. and Mary Maxwell - his parents - who said they were true partners in career aspirations and in their life as a couple.
It is true that they have taken the couple part out of the equation but they maintain the team of very powerful philanthropists that they embody - in one of their last actions they donated 250 million dollars to combat Covid-19 - and they continue to function as a team with their children.
Jennifer Katharine, Rory John, and Phoebe Adele won't inherit their parents' empire because, as Bill and Melinda Gates noted, they “are going to get a great education and some money, so they're not going to be poor, but they're going to go out and make your own career ”.
The question that now remains in the air is how the marriage will decide to distribute the fortune after the divorce, which, as it begins to be discussed, could be the most expensive in history.
