No Longer Believe In Being Together, Bill Gates And Melinda Gates Divorced After 27 Years Of Marriage

Bill Gates with Melinda Gates. (Wikimedia Commons/Kjetil Ree)

JAKARTA - The generous billionaire couple Bill Gates and Melinda Gates have decided to file for divorce after 27 years of marriage, the couple said Monday in a joint announcement that rocked the world of philanthropy.

"After a lot 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 Bill Gates' Twitter account.

"We no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in the next phase of our lives. We ask for space and privacy for our family as we begin to live this new life," continued the statement.

The two are listed as co-chairs and trustees of their non-profit organization, the Seattle-based Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which was launched in 2000. The foundation ended 2019 with net assets of $43.3 billion, according to the latest full-year financial statements published disclosed on its website.

From 1994 to 2018, Bill Gates and Melinda Gates awarded the foundation more than US$ 36 billion in gifts, the website said.

The foundation has focused its attention on public health, education, and climate change, with donations ranging from vaccine makers' support, diagnostic tests, and potential medical treatments for the coronavirus pandemic to the development of solar-powered toilets.

The foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how the group would run after Gates' separation.

The divorce came two years after the founder of Amazon.com Inc., Jeff Bezos, said he and his wife MacKenzie divorced.

Gates dropped out of Harvard University to start Microsoft with schoolmate Paul Allen in 1975. Gates owned 49 percent of Microsoft in its initial public offering in 1986, making him an instant multimillionaire. With Microsoft's rapid growth, he soon became one of the richest individuals in the world.

After an executive term in which he helped transform the company into one of the world's leading technology companies, Gates stepped down as CEO of Microsoft in 2000 to focus on philanthropy. He remained chairman until 2014 and left the company board in March 2020.

Gates' public persona softens to that of the avuncular old statesman, as he turns his attention to philanthropy and avoids the many controversies that are currently roiling the tech business.

Gates' partner Melinda, who recently began referring to herself as Melinda French Gates on most websites and social media, grew up in Dallas and studied computer science and economics at Duke University. She then joined Microsoft, where she met her future husband.

In 2015 she founded Pivotal Ventures, an investment company focused on women, and in 2019 published a book, "The Moment of Lift", which focuses on empowering women.