The co-founder and the former CEO of Microsoft, Bill Gates, and his wife, Melinda French Gates have decided to split up after 27 years of marriage, as announced on Twitter on Monday. However, the duo will keep on working together on humanitarian endeavors, which have addressed education, gender equality, and health care.
“After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage. 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. 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. We ask for space and privacy for our family as we begin to navigate this new life, the tweet stated.
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Moreover, Bill Gates, the previous year stepped down from Microsoft’s board of directors as the COVID-19 pandemic became a force globally. He started spending more time on the foundation beside Melinda Gates. The couple is co-chairs and trustees of the foundation, which was inaugurated in the year 2000. Bill and Melinda met at a dinner party for Microsoft employees in 1987. “It took him quite a few months before he asked me out,” Melinda Gates commented. Bill Gates had contemplated the pros and cons on a blackboard, and in 1994 the pair were married in Hawaii.
Melinda Gates told the Associated Press in an interview in 2019 that Bill and she are equal partners, as men and women should be equal at work. Recently, in the memoir of the Moment of Lift, she penned about her childhood years, life, and private exertions as the spouse of a prominent figure and stay-at-home mother with three kids.
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Melinda also spoke about how working together with Bill at the Foundation had made their relationship better, she debated. She further wrote that it was a learning experience for both of them, as he had to learn how to be equal, and she had to learn how to step up and be equal to him.
Furthermore, the announcement of separation comes two years after Jeff Bezos said he and his wife, MacKenzie, were getting divorced. Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates are among the wealthiest people in the world, and recently Amazon and Microsoft have started competing in the cloud computing business.
Image Source: Rappler
