Bill Gates 'crashes' his marriage: Microsoft mogul divorces Melinda Gates after 27 years
Bill Gates and his wife of 27 years, Melinda Gates, announce their public separation. The founder of the company Microsoft and tycoon of the computer industry has declared that the couple have reached an agreement to divide all their wealth and both filed a joint petition for dissolution of marriage in the Superior Court of King County in Seattle (United States ), where they declared that "the marriage is irretrievably broken". In this way, Bill and Melinda Gates join the long list of divorces in 2021 (which are not few) and star in one of the most surprising separations of the famous. Since the private foundation that the couple have together, they have ensured that both will continue working together in their current roles.
Bill and Melinda Gates divorce: this will be the billionaire divorce
Bill and Melinda Gates' multi-million dollar separation comes with the minor of their third child coming of age. After this, the couple asked the court to approve their divorce agreement and the division of the assets of the marriage. Both have announced the end of their relationship through an official statement on Twitter: "After thinking a lot and working hard on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage. We no longer believe that we can grow together as a couple in the next phase of our lives. We ask for space and privacy for our family as we begin to navigate in this new life, "each one declares on their official account.
The couple assures that they will continue working together in the private foundation of both: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. And it is that the couple separates after more than 27 years of love and many situations in which they have always supported each other. Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard University to start his great Microsoft empire with his colleague Paul Allen in 1975 and met Melinda in the late 1980s when she joined his company as a worker after studying Computer Science and Economics at Duke University.
Gates then owned 49% of Microsoft at his initial public offering in 1986, making him an instant billionaire and one of the richest people in the world. A year later he started his relationship with Melinda and seven years later, in 1994, they said "yes, I do." Now, the couple are divorcing two years after another top American billionaire and philanthropist, Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos, announced his separation from his then-wife, MacKenzie.
For her part, Gates' wife began to regain her maiden name in recent months, referring to herself as Melidan French Gates. In 2015 she founded Pivotal Ventures, a women-focused investment firm, and in 2019, Melinda Gates published the book The moment of lift: How empowering women changes the world. Castilian), focused on feminism.
In addition to sharing the money and the private foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates will have to sit down and talk about the cast of the embryo of the successful video game company Dream Works Interactive that Bill Gates created together with Jeffrey Katzenberg, David Geffen, and the famous filmmaker Steven Spielberg. .
Billionaire, controversial center and philanthropist: this is Bill Gates
Known in the tech industry as a harsh and ruthless competitor, Gates drew the ire of his rivals and eventually the United States government for his Microsoft business practices and the software giant was convicted of antitrust violations in late June. the 1990s. But the verdict was overturned on appeal and the company settled the case out of court.
Bill Gates helped transform the company into one of the world's leading technology firms and then stepped down as CEO of Microsoft in 2000 to focus on philanthropy, although he remained as president until 2014 and left the company's board of directors in March 2020, with the coronavirus pandemic. Thanks to this change, Bill Gates' public persona has softened into an aging paternal statesman figure as he began to turn his attention to selfless help to those in need of such support, staying away from the controversies of the world of technology. .
His business activity has helped him to become one of the richest men in the world and Forbes magazine estimated the fortune of Bill Gates at 123.8 billion dollars (103.1 billion euros). But his business and humanitarian efforts have not gotten him out of controversy and he has become a target of coronavirus deniers. They have also raised controversy for being staunch defenders of the intellectual property rights of private companies.
Bill and Melinda Gates have received numerous and prestigious awards for their philanthropic work, such as the Prince of Asturias in Spain, or the Legion of Honor in France, especially for their work through the GAVI initiative, an alliance between the public and private sectors which aims to improve access to vaccination in the world.
The Future of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
They have not yet offered many details on what the distribution of wealth will be like or how they will manage the foundation created in 2000, which has funds of 50 billion dollars and was created to promote "healthy and productive life" globally. Both Bill Gates and his wife Melinda have stressed that the private foundation and considered the most influential in the world will remain active, although experts such as David Callahank, editor of the publication Inside Philanthropy, has assured the Los Angeles Times that "there are still many unanswered questions" . And there are those who think that after her divorce Melinda Gates can create her own foundation.
For The New York Times, "The divorce raises new questions about the fate of Gates' fortune, much of which has not yet been donated to the Foundation as the philanthropist promised. Rob Reich, professor of political science at the Stanford University, they assure the New York newspaper: "The Gates Foundation is the most important and influential philanthropic entity in the world today. Divorce can have huge repercussions for the foundation and its work around the world. "
The foundation has also issued an official statement after the unexpected separation of the couple where they assure: "Bill and Melinda Gates will continue to work together to shape and approve the strategies of the foundation, defend the problems of the foundation and establish the general direction of the organization".
The Gates Foundation has focused on public health, education, and the climate. Its initiatives include supporting the development of coronavirus vaccines, diagnostic tests and medical treatments, as well as supporting public radio and the manufacturing of solar-powered toilets. In 2020 the foundation received a donation of $ 2 million in Berkshire Hathaway Inc stock as part of investor Warren Buffett's previously announced plans to give away his entire fortune before his death.
The consensus on the divorce of Bill and Melinda Gates is that although everything is fine for now, the reality is that it will depend on how "friendly" the separation is and how they manage to work together in the future. The foundation's executive director, Mark Suzman, wrote an email of calm to the foundation's workers, according to the newspaper, saying: "While this is obviously a difficult time of personal change for our co-presidents, together they have assured me their continued commitment to the foundation, where they have worked very hard for the past 20 years. "
