Bill and Melinda Gates to file for divorce after 27 years of marriage
Bill and Melinda Gates are ending their 27 year old marriage. In a joint statement on their twitter account the couple announced the news of ending the marriage. However, they would continue to work jointly at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Both were married in 1994 in Hawaii. They first met in 1987 when Melinda began working at Microsoft as a product manager.
“After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage.We have raised three incredible children and built a foundation that works all over the world to enable all people to lead healthy, productive lives,” they said in a statement. “We ask for space and privacy for our family as we begin to navigate this new life.”
Billionaire benefactors Bill and Melinda Gates are co-founders of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is one of the world’s largest private charitable foundations. With an endowment worth nearly $50 billion. The foundation has focused on public health, education and climate change issues since it was founded in 2000. During the coronavirus pandemic, the foundation granted some $1.75 billion to vaccine initiatives, diagnostics and research work. In her 2019 memoir, “The Moment of Lift,” Melinda Gates wrote about her childhood, life and private struggles as the wife of a public icon and stay-at-home mom with three kids. “Bill and I are equal partners,” Melinda Gates said in a 2019 interview with The Associated Press. “Men and women should be equal at work.”
Jennifer Gates is the eldest of the couple’s three children. She has two siblings, brother Rory and sister Phoebe. “I’m still learning how to best support my own process and emotions as well as my family members at this time and am grateful for the space to do so.” wrote Jennifer on her Instagram account about the divorce. “We continue to share a belief in that mission and will continue our work together at the foundation, but we no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in the next phase of our lives” said the couple in a joint statement about the divorce.
