Bill and Melinda Gates to Divorce after 27 Years of Marriage

WASHINGTON:
Bill and Melinda Gates said on Monday that they were divorcing after 27 years of marriage.

“After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage,” the two said in a statement posted on Twitter. “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.”

At stake is one of the world’s greatest fortunes — currently valued at $145.8 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index — and one of the largest philanthropy operations on the planet. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has given away more than $50 billion, contributing to the fight against Covid-19, leading the charge on climate change and advocating for women’s rights.

Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates, 65, is the world’s fourth-richest person. Melinda Gates, 56, is a former Microsoft manager who’s become an outspoken advocate on global health and equality for women in her role co-running the foundation.

While the separation stands to shake up the rankings of the world’s wealthiest people, the pair stressed it will have little impact on their philanthropic behemoth.

“Bill and Melinda will remain co-chairs and trustees of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,” a spokesperson for the foundation wrote in an emailed statement. “No changes to their roles or the organization are planned. They will continue to work together to shape and approve foundation strategies, advocate for the foundation’s issues, and set the organization’s overall direction.”

It’s the second bombshell divorce among the uppermost ranks of the world’s richest people in recent years, following the 2019 separation announcement of Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott.

That split, which divided the couple’s stake in Amazon.com Inc., immediately made MacKenzie one of the world’s richest people. In the months that followed, she became one of the most influential philanthropists in the world, giving away billions of dollars to often overlooked causes among billionaire donors.

The Gates’s wealth could prove more complex to carve up than the Bezos fortune, which was largely concentrated in Amazon stock.

Bill Gates’s net worth originated with Microsoft but shares of the software-maker now probably make up less than 20% of his assets. He’s shifted much of his stake into the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation over the years and his exact stake hasn’t been disclosed since he left Microsoft’s board last year.