Bill and Melinda Gates: Here's a look inside their 27-year marriage, from meeting at work, to spending $45 billion on philanthropy, to their 2021 divorce
"After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage," Bill Gates said in a tweet. "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."
Here's a look at the marriage between Bill and Melinda:
Bill and Melinda first met in 1987, when she joined Microsoft as a product manager.
Ron Galella, Ltd. / Getty Images
Bill asked her if she could go out "two weeks from tonight" — to which Melinda replied, "Two weeks from tonight? I have no idea what I'm doing two weeks from tonight.' And I said, 'You're not spontaneous enough for me."
Melinda and Bill dated for seven years before they wed. Melinda told Fortune her mom didn't think that seeing the CEO was a good idea in the beginning.
But the couple didn't listen. Business Insider's Tanza Loudenback reported they "kept a low profile at work and asked colleagues and family members to respect their privacy."
"When I look back, Bill was the same kind of guy I was hanging out with in college," Melinda told Fortune. "I had a lot of respect for them, and they had respect for me."
"I was definitely attracted to his brilliant mind, but beyond that, his curiosity," she told Fortune. "And he has a huge sense of fun. I love that wry side of him."
On a walk on a beach in Zanzibar, Melinda told TED in an interview, the couple "started to talk about" how they might use their fortune to help others.
"It's not fair that we have so much wealth when billions of others have so little," Melinda wrote, in one of the couples' annual letters.Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation co-chair Melinda Gates.
The couple married in 1994 in what was then Manele Bay Hotel in Hawaii. They tied the knot by the "par-3 12th hole" on the property's golf course, according to Forbes. The event reportedly cost $1 million.
To keep the wedding private, Bill booked all the rooms in the hotel, along with all of the helicopters on the island of Maui to "prevent unwanted visitors from flying over," Forbes reported.
Bill's parents gifted the newlyweds with a sculpture of two birds, sitting side-by-side and staring at the horizon. "It's still in front of our house," Melinda wrote in the couples' 2018 annual letter. "I think of it all the time, because fundamentally we’re looking in the same direction."
The next year, the couple's lavish home — nicknamed "Xanadu 2.0" — was completed in Medina, Washington. The mansion's estimated worth was $124 million in 2016.
Bill told Rolling Stone the children were raised Catholic. "We've raised our kids in a religious way," he said. "They've gone to the Catholic church that Melinda goes to and I participate in."
Gates has said his wife is a driving force when it comes to bringing the family together. "Melinda is very creative about helping me find chances to spend time with the kids," Gates wrote in a 2017 Reddit AMA. "Even just driving them to school is a great time to talk to them."
"We want to strike a balance where they have the freedom to do anything but not a lot of money showered on them so they could go out and do nothing," Bill told TED.
The Gates also support their kids in other ways. The couple spent $37 million purchasing a string of Wellington, Florida properties in 2016. The reason? Their daughter Jennifer is a nationally ranked show jumper, and the Florida town is the equestrian capital of the US.
Melinda has said her relationship with her husband has changed over time. "We've had to change to really be coequals," she said. "It's not something that immediately happens overnight, but we're both committed to it."
But these days, Bill and Melinda work as partners at the foundation. They both received Presidential Medals of Freedom in 2016 from President Barack Obama for their efforts.
They work to make sure their schedules are synchronized, complimentary, and balanced. "Melinda and I look over our schedules a lot to make sure we are balancing things well," Gates wrote in a 2018 Reddit AMA.
"Our occasional disagreements these days are over tactics. Because I've been a public figure longer, and because I’m a man, some people assume I am making the big decisions. That's never been the case," Bill wrote in the Gates Foundation's annual letter for 2018.
Melinda added that the couple avoids serious disagreements by sharing fundamental values, trust, and a sense of open-mindedness.Melinda and Bill Gates.
Warren Buffett, who is close with the couple, told Fortune that Bill was "smart as hell, obviously," but that "in terms of seeing the whole picture," Melinda was smarter.
In a Reddit AMA, Gates disclosed that his wife and Buffett were his two favorite celebrities...Warren Buffett speaks to the media with Bill and Melinda Gates June 26, 2006 at a news conference where Buffett spoke about his financial gift to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in New York City.
... followed by Bono and Jimmy Carter. He added that Nelson Mandela was the most impressive political leader he's ever met.Musician Bono from U2 reacts at the opening of the 53rd Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, February 17, 2017. REUTERS/Michael Dalder
When it comes to their working partnership, Bill wrote that the perception that Melinda is "the heart" of the organization is a bit of a stereotype, in the 2018 annual letter.
"Just as she knows I'm more emotional than people realize, I know she's more analytical than people realize. When I get really enthusiastic about something, I count on her to make sure I'm being realistic."
"Melinda and I believe that everyone deserves the chance for a healthy and productive life — and so with the help of our amazing partners, we are working to find innovative ways to help people in need all over the world," Bill wrote during one of his Reddit AMAs.
"After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage," Bill Gates said in a tweet. "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."
Melinda had reportedly been seeking a divorce since 2019, and unnamed sources told The New York Times Bill had pursued other women while married.File photo from November 24, 1998.
Reuters
Since announcing the divorce, news reports revealed complications in Bill and Melinda's relationship.
