Bill Gates divorce, Melinda’s concerns about friendship with Jeffrey Epstein

Melinda Gates contacted divorce lawyers two years ago, with insiders claiming she held concerns about a friend of her husband.

It seems that the split between Bill and Melinda Gates has been looming for some time, with new reports revealing Ms Gates contacted divorce lawyers two years ago about separating from her billionaire husband.

The 56-year-old has reportedly been in contact with several law firms since 2019 regarding her marriage to Mr Gates, with people familiar with the matter and documents revealing Ms Gates said the couple’s relationship was “irretrievably broken,” according to The Wall Street Journal.

The couple announced last week that they were divorcing after 27 years of marriage, revealing in a joint statement that they had been battling to save their relationship for some time.

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Bill and Melinda Gates announced that they will divorcing after 27 years of marriage. Picture: Ludovic Marin/AFP

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“After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage,” they 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.”

While the couple haven’t announced what prompted their split, a former employee of the their charity, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, told The Journal that Ms Gates had concerns about her husband’s interactions with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The publication claimed her concerns about Mr Gates’ dealings with the financier dated as far back as 2013 when the couple met Mr Epstein.

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Footage from Bill and Melinda Gates wedding in 1994.

The former employee told The Journal the Microsoft founder continued his relationship with Mr Epstein despite Ms Gates telling her husband she was uncomfortable with the man.

Mr Epstein died in jail in August 2019 while awaiting trial for multiple sex trafficking charges.

In 2019, the New York Times reported that Mr Gates had met with Mr Epstein on multiple occasions and once stayed late into the night at his Manhattan townhouse.

It is understood Ms Gates held a number of calls in October 2019 following the New York Times report.

That same year, Bridgitt Arnold, a spokesperson for Mr Gates, said he “regrets” his meetings with Mr Epstein, which were reportedly to discuss philanthropy.

“Bill Gates regrets ever meeting with Epstein and recognises it was an error in judgment to do so,” Ms Arnold said at the time.

Book reveals details of marriage struggles

Ms Gates lifted the lid on some of the struggles within her marriage in her 2019 book, The Moment of Lift.

The pair reportedly clashed over the handling of the Gates Foundation, with the 56-year-old revealing her desire to take over more responsibility alongside her already globally renowned husband, admitting it was “hard to be heard”.

“I’ve been trying to find my voice as I’ve been speaking next to Bill, and that can make it hard to be heard,” she wrote.

A pedestrian walks by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Picture: David Ryder/Getty Images/AFP

She said a request to co-author the annual Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation letter, usually written solely by her husband, brought particular strain on their 27-year marriage.

“I thought we were going to kill each other,” she wrote.

“I felt, ‘Well, this just might end the marriage right here.’

“I told him that there are some issues where my voice can make an impact, and in those cases, I should be speaking — separately or along with him.

“It got hot. We both got angry. It was a big test for us — not about how you come to agreement but about what you do when you can’t agree. And we took a long time to agree.”

How much money is at stake?

Mr Gates’ net worth is listed by Forbes as $168 billion (AUD), making him the world’s fourth richest man behind Jeff Bezos ($253 billion), Bernard Arnault ($236 billion) and Elon Musk ($215 billion).

The Gates’ divorce comes two years after another high profile billionaire, Jeff Bezos, finalised his split from his wife of 25 years, MacKenzie Scott.

That divorce ended in a massive settlement. Mr Bezos gave Ms Scott a quarter of their joint stocks in Amazon, worth about $US32 billion at the time, with the Gates’ settlement tipped to top that.

The same day the couple announced their divorce, Mr Gates’ investment firm, Cascade Investment, transferred $US1.8 billion ($A2.3 billion) in stock to his wife.

A securities filing revealed more than 14 million shares of Canadian National Railway was transferred to Ms Gates last week.

On the same day, the firm transferred more than 2.9 million shares of AutoNation to Ms Gates, a separate filing showed.

The transfers are among the first indications of how one of the world’s wealthiest couples will go about divvying up their assets as they separate.

The couple’s divorce petition, which was filed on Monday in King County Superior Court in Washington state, indicated that they don’t have a prenuptial agreement in place to distribute their assets.

Instead, the two have signed a separation contract for dividing their property and possessions, but the terms of that agreement have not been publicly disclosed in court documents.