Melinda Gates says Bill’s divorce was ‘lowest moment’ of her life

Computer scientist Melinda Gates, 57, said in an interview that realizing it was necessary to file for divorce from Bill Gates, 66, was “the lowest moment” of her life. She and the billionaire have been married for 27 years and have three children together.

In a conversation with USA Today, reproduced by the website Page Six, Melinda admitted knowing that there are “low moments” throughout life and that she is not always happy, but that divorce was something she never thought could happen.

“It certainly wasn’t what I thought the day I got married,” she said in the interview. “But I realized on my own that I needed to make a healthier choice, and that was a very, very sad day.”

In early March, Melinda stated that she and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates cannot be considered friends, even though they still work together. “The relationship is friendly, but ‘friend’ is a strong word for me.”​

The couple revealed the split in a short note on their social media accounts in May 2021, in which they said the fate of their marriage will not affect the work of the foundation, the world’s largest private charitable organization.

The two are co-chairs of the Gates Foundation, a nonprofit research and philanthropic organization they founded. “I believe in this institution. I believe in what we do. My values ​​are on that foundation. I think it has always made us better,” she said.

The couple invested much of their fortune, estimated at US$ 124 billion (R$ 674.5 billion), in the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which seeks to improve health care and reduce poverty in the world.

About the close relationship with the ex, he said he did not consider it an easy task. “I’m not going to say it was easy, but we did it. In my case, I had days when I burst into tears an hour before having a virtual meeting or I got angry, but I got over it and brought my best version,” he told presenter Gayle King. , from CBS Mornings.

In December 2021, Bill Gates claimed that no year of his life had been more “difficult” or “unusual”. On his blog, titled GatesNotes, the billionaire shared a text venting about his personal struggles throughout the year.

For him, 2021 was “an incredibly difficult year for a lot of people, myself included”. Gates says that while he would have preferred to focus on his work for the past year, he acknowledged the curiosity that arose around his divorce.

“Melinda and I have continued to run our foundation together and have found a good new pace of work,” the billionaire said of the nonprofit. “But I can’t deny that it was a year of great personal sadness for me. Adapting to change is never easy.”