How much would the divorce of Bill and Melinda Gates cost?
If Bill and Melinda decided to divide the fortune equally, Melinda would have a fortune of $ 65.250 million.
Bill and Melinda Gates, the billionaire couple in charge of the world's largest private foundation, will divorce after 27 years of marriage, according to announcements posted by them on Twitter.
Through a statement, the couple declared that their marriage is "irretrievably broken." Bill and Melinda will remain co-chairs of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and will continue to work together to shape the foundation's strategies and direction, according to a spokesperson.
The shocking announcement leaves several questions unanswered about Gates' fortune. It is not yet clear how the couple will split their assets or if they signed a prenup, however, due to the size of their fortune, the split will likely be one of the largest divorce settlements in history.
Bill Gates, who in 1975 co-founded Microsoft worth $ 130.5 billion, is the fourth richest person in the world according to Forbes.
Gates first became the world's richest person in 1995, with a fortune of $ 12.9 billion, a year after he married Melinda. According to the divorce petition, Bill and Melinda are currently separated and signed a contract that dictates how the couple will handle finances while living apart.
They both asked the court to divide the assets under the terms of the separation contract, but details of the contract were not disclosed. The presentation does not mention a prenuptial agreement, but that does not mean they do not have one, as they are not required to disclose everything in the presentation.
Complicating matters is the fact that Washington, where the Gates family resides, is a community-owned state. That means that all assets acquired by either party during a marriage are considered communal and are generally divided evenly during divorce in the absence of a prenuptial agreement.
Although in Washington, the parties can agree to divide their assets in a way that is "fair and equitable," which can result in settlements that are not necessarily 50/50, according to Janet George, a divorce attorney at the McKinley law firm. , based in Washington.
What has happened in other billionaire divorces? In the case of Jeff Bezos and his ex-wife MacKenzie; Jeff gave MacKenzie a quarter of her Amazon stake in her divorce settlement.
If Bill and Melinda decided to split the fortune equally, Melinda would have $ 65.25 billion, which would be more than what MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, received, who is worth $ 59.8 billion (Scott donated nearly $ 6 billion. of his fortune to charities last year).
Forbes compiled a list of the biggest billionaire divorces on record. In some cases, like the divide between Google's -2%, Sergey Brin and Anne Wojcicki, we don't know the size of the settlement because the divorce filings were sealed.
Below are five of the biggest divorce settlements, in descending order.
Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott: at least $ 35 billion
The couple met while they were both working at hedge fund D.E. Shaw in New York. After they moved to Seattle, MacKenzie helped Jeff get Amazon off the ground.
By April 2019, they announced the terms of their divorce: He received about 4% of Amazon's outstanding shares, worth more than $ 35 billion in 2019 when the deal was announced (now much more, with Amazon's shares). growing 75% since then).
For his part, Jeff clung to the entire Blue Origin rocket company and the Washington Post. Once the divorce was final, MacKenzie, who changed her last name to Scott in 2020 and remarried in March 2021, became the third richest woman in the world.
Bill and Sue Gross: $ 1.3 billion
The Grosses' messy divorce minted a new billionaire and dragged another. Sue filed for divorce in 2016 from her husband, the founder of asset manager Pimco, and left a year later with a $ 1.3 billion fortune.
That loot included a $ 36 million Laguna Beach home and "Le Repos," a disputed 1932 Picasso painting that she later sold for $ 35 million.
This while Bill was trying to hold on to one of his three cats, Sue finally got custody of all of them. Meanwhile, Bill lost his spot on The Forbes 400 list in 2018 after being 14 years in a row.
Steve and Elaine Wynn: $ 850 million
The co-founders of casino giant Wynn Resorts divorced (for the second time) in 2010. That settlement ruled that Elaine, a member of the Wynn Resorts board since 2002, received 11 million shares, worth an estimated $ 795 million.
Steve also sold about $ 114 million in stock that year; some, if not all, went to Elaine as part of the deal. She then sued Wynn Resorts in 2012 to sell part of her 9% stake and was ousted from the board three years later amid a proxy battle.
After Steve resigned as CEO and President in February 2018 amid allegations of sexual harassment that he has denied, he sold all of his shares. Elaine currently has a fortune of 2.3 billion dollars, she is the largest individual shareholder of Wynn Resorts.
Harold Hamm and Sue Ann Arnall: $ 975 million
After three years of bitter court proceedings, oil tycoon Harold tried in 2015 to end his 26-year marriage to Sue Ann (without prenuptial agreement) by writing her a check for 974,790,317.77 from his Morgan Stanley account.
He made the deposit, but then changed his mind, decided he wanted more, and filed an appeal seeking a larger share of the then $ 13.7 billion fortune tied to Hamm's 75% ownership of publicly traded Continental Resources.
In April 2015, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ended the battle, granting Harold's motion to dismiss his appeal, based on the precedent that Sue Ann had accepted the settlement by signing and depositing the check. On her side, Sue Ann subsequently funded a political action committee that succeeded in removing the judge presiding over the divorce.
Roy E. and Patricia Disney: $ 600 million
Roy and his wife filed for divorce in 2007 at the ages of 77 and 72, respectively, after 52 years of marriage. Roy, Walt Disney's nephew, was worth roughly $ 1.3 billion at the time.
Previously a mainstay of the Forbes 400, he lost nearly half of his fortune in divorce and was removed from the list. In 2008, he married writer and producer Leslie DeMeuse and a year later died; Patricia passed away in 2012. Her fortune was left in a family foundation with assets of $ 122 million (as of 2018) with both names and focused on contributing to the environment and the economy.
