Melinda Gates Filed For Divorce In King County, There Are No Details Of Inheritance

Melinda Gates bersama Bill Gates. (Wikimedia Commons/World Economic Forum)

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 is rocking the world of philanthropy.

"After a lot of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have decided 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 couple who has three children.

Melinda Gates filed a divorce petition in King County, Washington, on Monday, asking a judge to dissolve the marriage under the couple's contract of separation. No financial details are included in this publicly available document.

"We have raised three wonderful children and built a foundation that works around the world, to enable everyone to lead healthy and productive lives", the statement said.

"We continue to share faith in that mission and will continue our work together at the foundation, but we no longer believe that we can grow together as a couple in the next phase of our lives", the statement continued.

Bill and Melinda Gates met at Microsoft which was founded by Bill Gates and at that time served as CEO. Meanwhile, Melinda started her career as the only female product manager with MBA graduates who joined the company and eventually moved up to become general manager of information products.

They met not long after Melinda joined the company in 1987, at a business dinner in New York. Melinda describes meeting Bill Gates in her book, "The Moment of Lift"

"I arrived late, and all the tables were occupied except for one, which still had two empty chairs side by side. I sat on one of them. A few minutes later, Bill arrived and sat on the other chair," recalls Melinda, who married Bill in Hawaii in 1994 ago.

Over the past year, Gates, through their foundation, have been involved in the fight against COVID-19 and efforts to develop treatments and vaccines and distribute them evenly throughout the world. As of December, the group has awarded a total of $ 1.75 billion to contain the global pandemic.

In March 2020, Bill Gates resigned from the boards of directors of Microsoft and Berkshire Hathaway to "dedicate more time to his philanthropic priorities", including working to tackle climate change.

Melinda Gates, who is also the founder of the investment firm Pivotal Ventures, confirmed the couple's separation.

"We ask for space and privacy for our family as we begin to live this new life", the couple said in their statement Monday. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation did not immediately respond to requests for comment from CNN Business.