The split between Bill and Melinda Gates a ‘long time in the making’
Despite releasing amicable joint statements, reports have suggested the parting of ways between Bill and Melinda Gates was “not a friendly split”.
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A new report has emerged that Bill and Melinda Gates decided on divorcing months ago – long before they made an official announcement on Monday.
Sources alleged to TMZ that the pair had planned to share the news in March and were preparing to go public. Melinda allegedly rented Calivigny Island in the Caribbean for $A170,000 a night to escape the media scrutiny. The couple’s children, along with their significant others, were supposed to arrive.
According to a report on Fox News, insiders alleged Bill Gates was not invited to the island because “there was a considerable amount of acrimony associated with the split”.
“We’re told virtually everyone in the family took Melinda’s side,” TMZ claimed.
“Another way of putting it … we’re told they were very angry at Bill, and that’s why he wasn’t invited.”
The outlet claimed that while there are still “outstanding issues that couldn’t be resolved at the time of the trip”, Melinda went anyway.
“So here’s the takeaway,” the outlet alleged. “First, we’re told this was not a friendly split. We’re told Melinda and most of the family were furious at Bill for various things they claim he had done. Second … it’s clear this divorce has been a long time in the making.”
The former couple announced they are divorcing but would keep working together at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the largest charitable foundations in the world.
In identical tweets, the Microsoft co-founder and his wife said they had made the decision to end their marriage of 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,” they said in a statement.
“We ask for space and privacy for our family as we begin to navigate this new life.”
Court documents showed that Melinda filed for divorce and stated in the petition that their marriage was “irretrievably broken”.
The documents also revealed that the Gateses don’t have a prenuptial agreement in place, but will divide their assets according to a separation agreement.
Bill Gates was formerly the world’s richest person and his fortune is estimated at well over $A130 billion. How the couple ends up settling their estate and any impact on the foundation will be closely watched.
The Gateses met after Melinda began working at Microsoft as a product manager in 1987. They married in 1994.
MELINDA GATES ‘INSTANT’ BILLIONAIRE AFTER SPLIT
Meanwhile, Melinda Gates will leave her marriage as a billionaire, as the couple begin to divvy up their fortune following their shock split.
On Monday (local time) when they announced their divorce, Melinda received $1.8 billion ($A2.32 billion) in stocks from Bill’s asset management firm, Cascade Investment.
Despite losing the eye-watering sum, Bill still remains the fourth richest person in the world, with the transfer estimated to have lowered his net worth to an estimated $128.6 billion ($A166 billion) from $130.4 billion ($168.3 billion), Forbes reports.
Meantime, Melinda hinted at tensions in her marriage in an unearthed interview on Australian radio.
Melinda spoke to then-Triple J host Tom Tilley in 2019 while she was promoting her book The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World.’
“I know you’re a private person, and revealing a lot of the personal stuff in this book took a lot of consideration,” Mr Tilley said.
“But you do go into your marriage a little bit, because I guess it fits with the overall theme of the book, which is about the power dynamics between men and women.
“And you talk about a moment where you asked yourself, would you ever be able to have an equal partnership with a man like Bill Gates, who has such a strong voice. Were there times when you didn’t feel like it was an equal partnership?”
Melinda responded: “Yes. Definitely.
“And we talked about that at home. You know, if it came up in a dinner where I felt like he talked over me, even if it was inadvertent, I might let it go during the dinner – let’s say it’s a small dinner party – but there was no way I was going to let that go when we got home, or when we got in the car, to be frank.
“And so over time, he had to learn. And part of it was, he was just used to being the person – I mean, he was running Microsoft. He was in the position of power. So he wasn’t used to sharing power.
“Or he wasn’t used to even understanding that when he walks into a room or sits at a table, everyone assumes he’s the smartest person in the room. That’s not always true. So he had to learn to make room for me, which he absolutely does now.
“But those are learned behaviours. And sometimes I was heated in the way I took them on, sometimes I would do it with humour, sometimes I could be more neutral. They weren’t always pleasant. But he understood.
“The reason I bring that up though, is every man and woman or partnership needs to have these conversations, and they need to be safe, and they’re not always easy, but until we have these conversations in our home, we don’t then fully live them out in our communities and our workplaces.
“That is why I used my own personal example there, even though it wasn’t the easiest thing to write about.”
BILL GATES’ ANNUAL TRADITION WITH EX
Bill Gates took holidays with his ex-girlfriend after marrying his wife, and even sought her approval before he proposed.
The billionaire Microsoft founder told Time magazine of his unusual arrangement with his former flame, Ann Winblad, in a 1997 profile unearthed a day after he and his wife Melinda announced their divorce.
“When I was off on my own thinking about marrying Melinda, I called Ann and asked for her approval,” Gates said, adding that Winblad gave the other woman the thumb’s up.
In the same story, Winblad said Melinda would “good match” for Gates “because she had intellectual stamina.”
Gates and Winblad started dating in 1984 before breaking up in 1987, but continued to take an annual trip to Winblad’s cozy beach cottage in the US state of North Carolina.
The secluded trips involved everything from riding dune buggies to hang-gliding and quiet strolls on the beach.
“We share our thoughts about the world and ourselves,” Winblad told Time.
“And we marvel about how, as two young overachievers, we began a great adventure on the fringes of a little-known industry and it landed us at the centre of an amazing universe.”
Gates married Melinda in 1994, and it’s unclear whether his holiday tradition with Winblad continued beyond 1997.
Winblad co-founded Hummer Winblad Venture Partners in 1989 and remains the managing director of the venture capital firm. The company has launched over 160 enterprise software companies since its inception.
She also worked as a tech consultant for Microsoft in its early days and still holds stock with the tech giant.
BILL AND MELINDA GATES AGREED ON WEALTH DIVIDE BEFORE SPLIT CALL
Bill and Melinda Gates reportedly agreed how to divide their property and assets before announcing their divorce on Monday, according to US media reports.
The billionaire couple, who have been married for 27 years, signed a “separation contract” outlining how their estate would be split.
But they did not sign a pre-nuptial agreement before their wedding in 1994.
The couple run the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has spent billions on charitable causes around the world.
The former couple have pledged to continue to work together at the foundation once their divorce is finalised.
If the couple split their wealth 50/50, Bill Gates would fall to 17th on the Forbes rich list.
The Microsoft founder has hired the legal firm started by fellow billionaire Warren Buffett’s right-hand man to help lead his $170 billion divorce from wife Melinda.
Munger, Tolles & Olson is listed as one of three firms representing the Microsoft co-founder after Gates’ wife of 27 years filed for divorce on Monday.
Munger, Tolles & Olson was listed in the court papers filed in King County Superior Court in Seattle, in which Melinda wrote that the marriage was “irretrievably broken.”
GATES’ KIDS WON’T INHERIT FORTUNE
It also emerged that the Gates children will not inherit their parents’ vast fortune – instead they will have to settle for just a few million each.
“I definitely think leaving kids massive amounts of money is not a favour to them. Warren Buffett was part of an article in Fortune talking about this in 1986 before I met him and it made me think about it and decide he was right,” Mr Gates said in 2017.
The three children – Jennifer, 25, Phoebe, 18, and Rory, 21, – will inherit US10 million ($A13 million) each – which is less than one per cent of his fortune.
The Gates fortune is again creating headlines around the world following news the Microsoft founder was splitting with wife Melinda.
Mr Gates is the fourth richest person in the world, and is estimated to be worth $US130.5 billion ($A168 billion), according to Forbes.
The upcoming divorce is set to be one of the most expensive in history.
SHOCK SPLIT
They announced the shock split in a statement released via Twitter.
“After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage,” the pair said.
“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.”
Their assets include properties in five states with the standout being their $US127 million mansion in Medina, Washington, overlooking Lake Washington.
Dubbed “Xanadu 2.0”, the Pacific Lodge-style design includes seven bedrooms, a private library and a dome-shaped roof, with a swimming pool, private gym and a huge dining room.
Mr Gates bought the land on which it was built in 1988 for $US2 million.
The home includes tech-inspired features such as sensors, temperature and custom lighting, and speakers behind the walls which allow music to “follow” guests throughout the home.
Legal documents that emerged on Tuesday revealed the couple do not have a pre nuptial agreement, but the documents refer to a separation contract, which includes financial information relating to two of the couple’s three children.
Jennifer Gates, 25, an elite equestrian and medical student, took to Instagram to comment on her parents’ shock announcement.
“It’s been a challenging stretch of time for our whole family,” she wrote.
“I’m still learning how to best support my own process and emotions as well as my family members at this time and am grateful for the space to do so.”
RELATIONSHIP HISTORY
Bill, 65, and Melinda, 56, started dating in 1987 after meeting at a trade show in New York.
She went on to work in marketing for Microsoft before being appointed General Manager of Information Products in the 1990s.
They married in 1994 when Microsoft had already become the world’s most valuable company.
Melinda has previously said Bill’s long work hours made their marriage “incredibly hard”.
“Believe me, I can remember some days that were so incredibly hard in our marriage where you thought, ‘Can I do this?’” she told the Sunday Times in 2019.
In the Netflix series Inside Bill’s Brain, they admit they considered breaking up while they were dating because of his work.
“You know, we cared a lot for each other and there were only two possibilities: either, we were going to break up or we were going to get married,” Bill said.
He then made a list of the pros and the cons before deciding on a union.
“I took the idea of marriage very seriously,” he said.
Melinda added: “(He) wanted to be married, but he didn’t know whether he could actually commit to it and (run) Microsoft.”
‘NO PRENUP’
Meanwhile, new documents have revealed Gates’ do not have a prenuptial agreement.
During their near three decade marriage, the wealthy high profile couple amassed an estimated $US130 billion fortune.
The papers show Melinda did not ask for spousal support and has asked for a trial date in April 2022.
They also cite the request for divorce, saying their marriage is “Irretrievably broken”.
However the former couple refer to a separation contract, which includes financial information relating to two of the couple’s three children.
Their assets include properties in five states with a standout their $US127 million ($A164 million) mansion in Medina, Washington, overlooking Lake Washington.
Dubbed “Xanadu 2.0”, the Pacific Lodge-style design includes seven bedrooms, a private library and a dome-shaped roof, with a swimming pool, private gym and a huge dining room.
Mr Gates bought the land on which it was built in 1988 for $US2 million.
The home includes tech-inspired features such as sensors, temperature and custom lighting, and speakers behind the walls which allow music to “follow” guests throughout the home.
They also own a $US59 million ($A76 million) ranch in Florida and a Wyoming ranch worth $US9 million ($A11.6 million) consisting of five bedrooms, three bathrooms, a guesthouse, caretaker’s house, dairy cabin, stable and a hut located in the middle of a lake.
The pair own a private jet and car lover Bill owns a Porsche 930 Turbo, a Jaguar XJ6, a Ferrari 348 and a rare Porsche 959, which was held up for 13 years by US customs. Most recently, he purchased an electric car, the Porsche Taycan.
An art collection that includes the Da Vinci Codex worth $30 million is also up for grabs.
Originally published as The split between Bill and Melinda Gates a ‘long time in the making’
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