Why Bill and Melinda Gates divorced

By Tabitha Micere

Billionaires Bill Gates and wife Melinda Gates have decided to call it quits after 27 years of marriage. Melinda filed for the divorce citing their marriage as ‘irretrievably broken’.

In a joint statement on Monday, the couple took to their twitter accounts and tweeted, ‘After a great deal of thoughts and a lot of work on our relationship we have decided to end our marriage….but we can no longer 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.’

Not surprisingly, Melinda is not asking for any spousal support. The couple had three children and an estimated net worth of 130billion dollars.

The couple, who met at Microsoft and married in Hawaii in 1994, asked for privacy.

The couple asked the court to approve their agreement on the division of assets but did not disclose details, according to Reuters news agency.

Bill Gates, 65, founded Microsoft in 1975 with Paul Allen.

His net worth stands at an estimated $130.5bn, according to Forbes, and he has donated $35.8bn worth of Microsoft stock to the couple’s foundation.

He announced last year he would be stepping down from Microsoft’s board to focus full-time on his work as the foundation’s co-chair.

Melinda Gates, 56, serves as the foundation’s co-chair and is the founder of Pivotal Ventures, an investment and incubation company that works to advance the interests of American women and families.

Launched in 2000, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest private philanthropic foundation in the United States and one of the biggest in the world, with net assets of $43.3bn at the end of 2019, according to its website.

The pair “will continue to work together to shape and approve foundation strategies, advocate for the foundation’s issues and set the organization’s overall direction,” the Gates Foundation said in a statement.

The divorce petition, which states that the couple have no minor children, comes after the youngest of their three offspring recently turned 18.