Melinda Gates is speaking her truth, as she decided to open up about the painfully hard divorce she went through after splitting with ex-husband, Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates.
Melinda explained that she just couldn’t stay in the marriage any longer and says it was such a struggle to continue working alongside Bill even as they were in the midst of splitting up.
Melinda, 58, and Bill, 66, tied the knot in 1994 and were together for 27 years before they announced that their marriage was ending in May 2021.
Now, the computer scientist has opened up about her decision to leave her husband-of-nearly-three-decades. Melinda told Fortune magazine in a new interview, that the COVID-19 pandemic helped give her the privacy to do what she needed to do.
“I had some reasons I just couldn’t stay in that marriage anymore,” she explained. “But the odd thing about COVID is that it gave me the privacy to do what I needed to do. It’s unbelievably painful, in innumerable ways, but I had the privacy to get through it.”
The ex-couple had three children together; Jennifer, 25, Rory, 23, and Phoebe, 19.
They also founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation together in 2000, and even after going their separate ways, the former couple continued to run the foundation together, which Melinda said helped her get through it.
“I kept working with the person I was moving away from, and I needed to show up and be my best self every single day,” she continued. “So even though I might be crying at 9am and then have to be on a video-conference at 10am with the person I’m leaving, I have to show up and be my best.”
“My main concern was always to protect my kids and I’m thankful that Bill and I have finally gotten to the other side,” Melinda said.
Going through such a painful divorce helped the philanthropist learn that as a leader she can achieve anything.
“I learned as a leader that I could do it. It reminded me that the foundation calls me to be my best. We work with unbelievable partners around the world who were also struggling during COVID,” she said.
Melinda previously told Good Morning America that her and ex-husband’s philanthropy helped them get through their split, claiming that it held them together, allowed more grace and smoothed things over during some of the most difficult aspects of the breakup.
“Our philanthropy actually called us to be our best selves, even during the most difficult times behind-the-scenes,” she said back in August. “We were working through the specifics of the divorce and there was sadness, but we were still both showing up for the foundation. I think that held us together and allowed more grace during that period, and since then, it’s kind of smoothed things over on the back end.”
Melinda, who worked as the general manager of information products at Microsoft until 1996, when she left the company to focus on starting her family, met Bill at a trade fair in New York, and they became husband and wife in 1994.
10 years into their marriage, rumors began to circulate that Bill was having an affair with a Microsoft employee.
Despite the rumors, Melinda says it had nothing to do with her ultimate decision for getting divorced.
“I certainly believe in forgiveness, so I thought we had worked through some of that,” Melinda claimed back in March during an interview with CBS Mornings. “It wasn’t one moment or one specific thing that happened. There just came a point in time where there was enough there that I realized it just wasn’t healthy, and I couldn’t trust what we had.”
When Bill Gates was asked about his infidelity back in May, he simply answered, “I certainly made mistakes, and I take responsibility. I don’t think delving into the particulars at this point is constructive, but yes, I caused pain and I feel terrible about that. I have responsibility for causing a lot of pain to my family.”
“The divorce is definitely a sad thing. It was a tough year. I feel good that all of us are moving forward now,” he added. “Melinda and I are continuing to work together. It was sad and tragic, but now we’re moving together.”
After their divorce, the pair reportedly split their joint $130 billion net worth.
She’s a fucking lying whore, she left this billioaire pervert because he would take trips with Jeffrey Epstein to have sex with under age girls. She’s holding back for a good percentage of his entire portfolio. She should out this pervert, who is obviously a big democrat doner and supporter. Again the liberals are perverts.