WHY DIVORCE BILL GATES AND MELINDA? THE BACKSCENE OF THE CLAMOROUS GOODBYE
A huge fortune is at stake, yellow on the prenuptial agreement
The farewell between Bill and Melinda Gates shakes the world of philanthropy and beyond, throwing great uncertainty about the future of the family foundation, which manages assets for 50 billion dollars, and the fate of the enormous fortune of the richest couple in the world. which amounts to over $ 200 billion.
Since the news of the divorce was announced on Twitter by the couple on the road, few details have been leaked.
From some papers obtained from the gossip site Tmz it would have been Melinda to ask to end the marriage with the founder of Microsoft, considering them now "irrevocably compromised". After all, Bill and Melinda made it clear in their tweet: "While we continue to work together, we don't believe we can still grow together as a couple". The request to the judge would therefore be to pronounce the end of the relationship in a consensual manner.
Melinda, who has a personal wealth of about $ 70 billion, would not make any economic claims against her husband who has over $ 133 billion in his pocket.
Even if it is yellow on the existence or not of a prenuptial contract: according to Tmz there is not, but for many other observers it is difficult to think that there is not a shred of agreement for such an immense patrimony.
The sensational announcement of the end of 27 years of marriage came like a bolt from the blue for most, but not for those who knew the couple well and have followed its events in recent years. Despite the extreme confidentiality of the Gates home, many knew how the relationship had slowly deteriorated and how Bill and Melinda, 65 and 56 years old respectively, had already separated previously without much fanfare, also to protect the privacy of their three children ( two girls aged 18 and 25 and a male aged 21). There are those who swear that for a long time Melinda, originally from Dallas and arrived at Microsoft in 1994 as a marketing manager, has been pawing to become more independent and affirm her figure and her personality regardless of her husband. This also within the family foundation, created in 2000 and always run together. Melinda herself in the past has told how she had to fight to see her spaces recognized: "Bill had to learn to have to be an equal, and I had to learn to step forward to be an equal".
However, the combination resulted in an experience that revolutionized the world of philanthropy, a foundation founded on the rigid managerial criteria that Bill Gates had already experienced at Microsoft and which today has over 1,600 employees worldwide. A war machine thanks to which the Gates have spent about 5 billion dollars a year to develop research in the health and education sectors, especially in the poorest countries, fighting infectious diseases such as malaria or in favor of literacy. Over a billion was then allocated to fight the current pandemic, investing from the very beginning in the research of vaccines.
Now, beyond the couple's reassurances, many are wondering what will happen. Melinda already has one of her own companies, Pivotal Ventures, which invests in issues related above all to the emancipation of women. Bill himself founded Gates Ventures with which he pursues his interests outside the foundation. The personal wealth of the two is completed by the 1% of shares still held in Microsoft, for a value of approximately 7 billion. The Gates are America's largest farmland owners and, through an investment fund, hold a large portfolio of stocks, from the Four Seasons hotel chain to the Canadian National Railway. Among the real estate properties there is also the family mansion of over 6 thousand square meters just outside Seattle.
As in 'Same Day, Next Year', Robert Mulligan's 1978 film starring Alan Alda and Ellen Burstyn: Bill Gates, the multibillionaire at the center of the sensational divorce from his wife Melinda, has spent a long weekend every year with former flame Ann Winblad with whom he broke up in 1987, shortly before meeting his future wife.
The Daily Mail reports on its online site about the bizarre deal that Melinda has not objected to. The British newspaper also cites a 1997 interview by Gates with Time in which he said he called Ann to get his consent once he decided to get married.
Ann Winblad, a venture capitalist, is 70, four years older than Gates. Her former lovers, according to the Daily Mail, have kept her tradition alive for decades at her seaside home on the Outer Banks in North Carolina.
