Melinda French Gates reveals ‘painful’ details of divorce from Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates

Bill Gates’ ex wife Melinda has given a candid new interview shedding light on her headline-grabbing divorce from her former Microsoft billionaire husband.

Melinda French Gates said trust was “broken” during her ill-fated marriage to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, eventually leading to their bombshell divorce.

She reflected on her “journey of healing” following the painful and high-profile divorce in an exclusive interview with CBS Mornings anchor Gayle King, the New York Post reports.

Melinda and Bill were married for 27 years before announcing their split last May.

French Gates told King that she shed “a lot of tears for many days,” and recalled lying on the carpet thinking, “How can this be? How can I get up? How am I going to move forward?”

Melinda and Bill Gates were married in 1994. Picture: Getty Images

She said there were days when she was angry following the split.

“That’s part of the grieving process,” she said. “You’re grieving a loss of something you thought you had and thought you had for your lifetime.”

The 57-year-old philanthropist’s rare television interview will air in its entirety in the US on Thursday. It is the first time she has spoken publicly about her divorce. The Tiffany Network released a teaser of King’s sit-down with the tech mogul’s ex-wife.

“I mean, this is painful stuff,” she said. “And at the end of the day, though, I started on this journey of healing, and I feel like I’m starting to get to the other side. And I do feel like I’m turning a page in the chapter now. I mean, it’s 2022, and I’m actually really excited about what’s to come and life ahead for me.”

King also asked French Gates about the revelation that her husband had an affair back in 2000.

“I certainly believe in forgiveness, so I thought we had worked through some of that,” French Gates said. “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 realised it just wasn’t healthy, and I couldn’t trust what we had.

“Once trust is broken, isn’t it hard to get it back?” King, 67, asked French Gates in the clip.

“Very. It’s very hard to get it back, in any relationship,” she replied.

The former couple’s very public split has uncovered Gates’ 2000 affair. Picture: AFP

The couple finalised their divorce last year. News of their split was followed by reports of Melinda’s concern over her then-husband’s ties to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, as well as a harassment claim against Gates’ money manager.

Bill Gates was also said to have maintained a years-long affair with a Microsoft employee. When the employee informed the company board in 2019, Gates stepped down around the same time that an internal investigation was launched.

The pair founded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation while they were together and built it into one of the largest charitable organisations in the world.

At the time divorce papers were filed, Bill Gates was worth an estimated $130 billion. The couple did not sign a prenuptial agreement.

Shortly after the divorce was finalised, Bill Gates told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that his split from Melinda was a “very sad milestone” and a source of “personal sadness”.

Gates has called the split ‘a very sad milestone’. Picture: Getty Images

Gates told the anchor that he and his ex-wife will continue their philanthropic work together, citing her “incredible strengths” in furthering the missions of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Melinda has said she will try to work with Bill on the foundation for at least two more years.

“I’ve always enjoyed our work together,” Gates told CNN.

“You know the two of us can go out and work with leaders and help build the organisation, so that would be definitely the best thing for the foundation,” he said.

Bill and Melinda Gates were seen together during the wedding of the oldest of their three children, Jennifer Gates, 25, who exchanged vows last year with Nayel Nassar, a 30-year-old equestrian, in Westchester County.

This article originally appeared on the New York Post and is reproduced here with permission