Melinda Gates might not share the same feelings as her ex-husband, as she's offered a rather blunt reply to his claims that their divorce was one of his biggest 'mistakes'.
Bill and Melinda Gates married in 1994 after meeting at Microsoft, remaining together for 27 years until they divorced in 2021. Outside of her work at Microsoft in a number of roles, Melinda also co-founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000, which is now considered to be the third largest philanthropic foundation in the world according to ARCO.
While official details surrounding the reason behind their divorce have not been disclosed, reports from the Washington Post indicate that Bill had engaged in an affair with an employee, and the Wall Street Journal has outlined that Melinda was meeting with divorce lawyers in 2019, two years prior to their separation became final, and around the time that Bill Gates' ties to Jeffrey Epstein became public.
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In a recent interview with The Times, Bill Gates revealed that one of the biggest mistakes in his life was his divorce from Melinda, illustrating:
"You would have to put that at the top of the list. There are others but none that matter. The divorce thing was miserable for me and Melinda for at least two years."
Unfortunately for Bill it doesn't appear that his ex-wife shares his regrets, offering a rather brutal response to the comments in a recent interview with Elle for their Women of Impact issue, as reported by the Independent.
When asked for her thought on her ex-husband's comments, Melinda remarked: "You've clearly Googled more than I have," rolling her eyes at the same time.
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"Look, divorces are painful, it's not something I would wish on any family."
While it's clear that the divorce process wasn't exactly pleasant for either party, Melinda seems to still believe it was the right idea still.
Speaking to CBS Mornings regarding their divorce, Melinda revealed: "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."
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Adding to that, she indicated: "I certainly believe in forgiveness, so I thought we had worked through some of that."
She has now resigned from her role at the Gates Foundation to focus on her own personal philanthropic activities following the divorce, and according to Forbes she is currently the 58th wealthiest individual in the world with a net worth of $30.2 billion.
This puts her on a similar level to Jeff Bezos' ex-wife MacKenzie Scott, who sits in 75th place with a net worth of $27 billion, as she has also devoted billions of her wealth to charitable ventures, particularly focusing on small donations to a wider pool of charities and nonprofits.