Microsoft founder Bill Gates has taken to Twitter to announce that he will be separating from his 27 years wife Melinda Gates.
She and Bill Gates co-founded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which is poised at helping the less privileged as well as promoting global health researches in their philanthropic effort to help wage war on poverty and diseases.
The couple, along with billionaire investor Warren Buffett, also founded The Giving Pledge, a campaign encouraging wealthy people to give away the bulk of their money. Â
Bill Gates made it known that his marriage to Melinda Gates will be coming to an end after 27 years because after much deliberation, both cannot grow further as a couple.
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“After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage,” the Microsoft co-founder shared on Twitter.
“Over the last 27 years, 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.Â
“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 this next phase of our lives,” the tweet continues. “We ask for space and privacy for our family as we begin to navigate this new life.”
— Bill Gates (@BillGates) May 3, 2021
Bill Gates also made it known that he and Melinda Gates will continue to shape the organization’s strategies as well as champion its causes and set its direction.
Jennifer Gates, the couple’s oldest daughter, shared a statement via Instagram Stories which reads, in part: “It’s been a challenging stretch of time for our whole family. I’m still learning how to best support my own process and emotions as well as family members at this time.”
Bill Gates made majority of his fortune as the co-founder of Microsoft which he started back in 1975 and he’s currently the fourth richest person on Earth with a net worth of over US$124 Billion according to Forbes.
The Gates met shortly after Melinda Gates began working at Microsoft in 1987.
“It took him quite a few months before he finally asked me out,” Melinda said during a 2016 interview with Robin Roberts.
There was a brief exploration of the Gates family and marriage in a three-part documentary back in 2019 by Netflix which also focused on their philanthropical efforts in their foundation.
“She’s a lot like me in that she’s optimistic and she’s interested in science,” Bill Gates says in the documentary. “She’s better with people than I am. She’s a tiny bit less hardcore about knowing immunology than I am.”
Melinda Gates added, “We have a lot of humor in our relationship and we can joke about things.”
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has shelled over US$58 billion in their quest to fighting “inequities in the world” according to the foundation’s website.
The organization also focused really well on battling the COVID-19 pandemic while also fighting off infectious diseases as well as eliminating poverty and improving US public education.
Last May, the foundation pledged $125 million toward the international effort to develop and distribute COVID-19 diagnostics, therapies and vaccines.
The news is quite surprising considering the fact that the fellow billionaire and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his ex-wife Mackenzie Scott announced their divorce.
