Celebrity3 min(s) read
Published 14:32 05 Aug 2021 GMT
Bill Gates has opened up about the infamous affair he had with a Microsoft employee nearly 20 years ago.
The billionaire stepped down from the Microsoft board in March 2020, before splitting up with his wife of 27 years, Melinda, in May 2021.
Their divorce was finalized earlier this week, and now he's opened up about the past, listing his "regrets" during his ill-fated union.
Speaking to CNN's Anderson Cooper, Gates' infamous affair came up during the conversation.
When asked about it, the 65-year-old said: "Certainly, I think everyone does [have regrets].
"But it's a time of reflection and at this point I need to go forward. My work is very important to me. Within the family we'll heal as best we can and learn from what happened."
The Microsoft founder went on to praise Melinda and said they were hoping to continue their working partnership through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
"Melinda's a great person and that partnership that we had coming to an end is a great source of great personal sadness," he went on.
"We are communicating and working at the foundation and so that partnership we're going to try to continue. Melinda has incredible strengths that she brings that help the foundation be better.
"We've always enjoyed our work together. The two of us can go out and work with leaders and help build the organization so that would definitely be the best thing for the foundation."
The pair tied the knot in 1994, and went on to welcome three kids.
After the pair announced shock news of their split in May, a spokesperson for Gates said that the affair ended "amicably" and was not the reason behind his resignation from the board.
"There was an affair almost 20 years ago which ended amicably," the spokesperson said.
"Bill's decision to transition off the board was in no way related to this matter. In fact, he had expressed an interest in spending more time on his philanthropy starting several years earlier."
Microsoft said it was conducting a "thorough investigation".
The spokesperson went on: "Microsoft received a concern in the latter half of 2019 that Bill Gates sought to initiate an intimate relationship with a company employee in the year 2000.
"A committee of the board reviewed the concern, aided by an outside law firm, to conduct a thorough investigation. Throughout the investigation, Microsoft provided extensive support to the employee who raised the concern."
When he left Microsoft's board last year, Gates said he was stepping down to focus on philanthropy.
He said: "I have made the decision to step down from both of the public boards on which I serve - Microsoft and Berkshire Hathaway - to dedicate more time to philanthropic priorities including global health and development, education, and my increasing engagement in tackling climate change.
"The leadership at the Berkshire companies and Microsoft has never been stronger, so the time is right to take this step."
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celebrity2 min(s) read
Published 10:12 04 May 2021 GMT
Bill Gates and his wife Melinda have announced that their divorce after 27 years of marriage.
The 65-year-old Microsoft founder and his 56-year-old spouse dropped the bombshell news in a joint statement on Twitter on Monday, May 3.
In a message shared with his 54.7 million followers on the platform, Bill Gates wrote:
"After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage."
The statement continues: "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."
They added: "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 the next phase of our lives.
"We ask for space and privacy for our family as we begin to navigate this new life.
According to BBC News, the couple first met in 1987 at a trade fair in New York, after Melinda (neé French) joined Microsoft to work as a marketing manager.
Gates, currently estimated by Forbes to be the fourth wealthiest man in the world, married Melinda in a private ceremony held in Hawaii in 1994. They went on to have three children together: Jennifer, Phoebe, and Rory.
The pair went on to kickstart a number of high-profile philanthropic initiatives, including the jointly-managed Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
In addition to this, the couple also publically championed the so-called "Giving Pledge", which calls upon billionaires to commit to giving away the majority of their wealth to charitable causes.
Gates himself stepped down from Microsoft's board of directors in March of 2020 to focus more on his philanthropism.
In a statement posted on LinkedIn, Gates wrote that he wanted to "maintain the friendships and partnerships that have meant the most to me continue to contribute to two companies of which I am incredibly proud, and effectively prioritize my commitment to addressing some of the world’s toughest challenges."
celebrity2 min(s) read
Published 19:16 02 Mar 2022 GMT
Melinda Gates has admitted that trust was "broken" during her marriage to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.
The couple split in a bombshell divorce last May after 27 years together. Now, Melinda is opening up about the painful high-profile breakup in an exclusive interview with CBS Mornings anchor Gayle King.
Per The New York Post, Melinda spoke about embarking on a "journey of healing" following her divorce from the billionaire Microsoft mogul.
"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," she said.
The philanthropist - who founded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with her husband - went on to say that the split was a "grieving process" for her. She added that somedays she was reduced to lying on the carpet thinking: "How can this be? How can I get up? How am I going to move forward?"
She also opened up about her husband's infamous affair with a Microsoft employee back in 2000, suggesting that she could never fully trust him again.
"I certainly believe in forgiveness, so I thought we had worked through some of that," she went on. "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 realized it just wasn't healthy, and I couldn’t trust what we had."
In a clip of the full interview - which will air in its entirety on Thursday - King asks Melinda about the infidelity, saying: "Once trust is broken, isn’t it hard to get it back?"
"Very, it’s very hard to get it back, in any relationship," the 57-year-old responds.
Gates' rumored year-long affair with a Microsoft employee caused a media storm and led to him stepping down from the company board amidst an internal investigation.
He and Melinda share three children and continue to work together to run their charitable foundation.
entertainment3 min(s) read
Published 11:57 05 May 2021 GMT
Bill Gates once admitted that he still goes on vacations with his ex-girlfriend – even after marrying Melinda.
His unusual extramarital vacations resurfaced online after news of his split from wife Melinda. In a joint announcement on Monday, May 3, the Microsoft founder, and Melinda shared that they were ending their marriage after 27 years.
Speculation over the pair's relationship has been rife in the wake of their separation - however, it appears that this one came straight from the horse's mouth.
As per a 1997 interview with Time magazine, Gates - who had been married to Melinda for three years at that point - talked about his special relationship with a particularly important lady in his life - his ex-girlfriend.
In fact, according to the 65-year-old tech mogul, he even had an "arrangement" with his wife that he and his ex Ann Winblad, 70, would continue their annual vacations.
It had long been a tradition for the former partners to spend a spring weekend together at her beach cottage on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The mini-trip would see them riding dune buggies, hang-gliding, and walking on the beach.
"We can play putt-putt while discussing biotechnology," Gates told the publication, with Winblad adding: "We share our thoughts about the world and ourselves.
"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 center of an amazing universe."
As it turns out Gates and Winblad's relationship is a lot more than just fun-filled weekends away - the billionaire business magnate even trusts her with important decisions.
According to Time, he even sought out Winblad's approval before tying the knot with Melinda.
He recalled: "When I was off on my own thinking about marrying Melinda. I called Ann and asked for her approval."
And needless to say, Winblad gave her approval telling the publication years later: "I said she'd be a good match for him because she had intellectual stamina."
The pair ended their relationship in 1987 after it was reported by NY Post that Winblad wanted to settle down, having been five years older than Gates.
Earlier this week, Gates and Melinda announced their own separation on Twitter, writing in a statement: "After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage."
celebrity2 min(s) read
Published 10:52 04 May 2021 GMT
Just minutes after Bill Gates announced his shock split from wife Melinda after 27 years of marriage, the billionaire's DMs became far from dry.
Fans have not been holding back in messaging the Microsoft founder, with many taking to social media to share their chat-up lines the magnate.
Bill said he is proud of what he and Melinda have achieved over nearly three decades but admits they can't continue into the next phase of their life as a couple.
And just moments after the split was announced in a statement on social media, fans rushed to shoot their shot with the billionaire.
One fan tweeted: "Sliding into Bill Gates’ DMs like...," while another wrote: "RIP Bill Gates DMs..."
Another shared a screenshot of Gates' Twitter DMs, writing: "Bill Gates is getting a divorce... So I slid up in his DMs like -" after messaging him: "Hey, my name's Microsoft. Can I crash at your place tonight?"
Other fans responded directly to his divorce statement, as one fan simply wrote: "heyyyy lol
The statement read:
"After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage.
"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."
The pair met in the late 1980s when Melinda joined her soon-to-be husband's Microsoft firm.
They tied the knot in January 1994 and went on to welcome three children.
celebrity3 min(s) read
Published 15:18 06 Oct 2022 GMT
Melinda French Gates has spoken about the end of her 27-year marriage to Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates, calling their split "unbelievably painful" in a recent interview.
The 58-year-old sat down with Fortune magazine to discuss her plans to invest $1 billion for women in the US, including for issues such as reproductive rights and caregiving.
French Gates' divorce from her ex-husband was finalized in August 2021, three months after first filing for divorce.
"I had some reasons I just couldn't stay in that marriage anymore. But the odd thing about COVID is that it gave me the privacy to do what I needed to do," the Texan native stated.
"It's unbelievably painful, in innumerable ways, but I had the privacy to get through it," she added.
The former spouses share three children together - Jennifer, 26, Rory, 23, and Phoebe, 20. French Gates maintained that her children took priority during the divorce proceedings, saying: "My main concern, of course, was trying to protect my kids through it. And we got to the other side."
Earlier this year, the mom-of-three had spoken to CBS Mornings' Gayle King about her separation from the American business magnate, admitting: "On the day I got married, I never thought I would end up being divorced. Unfortunately, I felt like I needed to take a different path."
The philanthropist was asked about the New York Times report that exposed Gates' affair with a Microsoft staffer 20 years ago - but which Gates admitted to in 2021. French Gates answered that she believe in "forgiveness" and had thought that they had "worked through some of that."
"There just came a point in time where there was enough there that I realized it just wasn't healthy, and I couldn't trust what we had," she confessed.
During that interview, French Gates stated that her and her ex-husband were on "friendly" terms and have a working relationship (the pair co-founded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000) but that there was "still healing that needs to happen."
French Gates detailed the raw emotions she had felt after the split, saying: "I had a lot of tears for many days — days where I'm literally laying on the floor, the carpet this close to me, thinking, 'How can this be? How can I get up? How am I gonna move forward?' Days where I certainly was angry; this is painful stuff."
The bestselling author then declared that she didn't regret her decision to end the marriage, adding: "I gave every single piece of myself to this marriage. I was committed to this marriage on the day we got engaged until the day we got out of it.
"Society used to put things on women, like it was our fault - no. I did nothing wrong, so I hold my head high."
