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.
