'At the end of the day though I started on this journey of healing and I feel like I'm starting to get to the other side. This week, sources told TMZ that the billionaire philanthropist and former wife of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, 58, was dating Jon Du Pre, a former TV news anchor and author, who was locked in a nine-year court battle with his wife over child support, according to public records. French Gates was asked about how she felt about her former husband's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and whether that contributed to the decision to divorce. She set up The Giving Pledge with her ex-husband and Warren Buffett with the intention of encouraging the world's richest people to donate their money to charity. "It was about, 'Can I get the balance right between work and family life?'". In her first interview since her divorce from the billionaire last year, Melinda told CBS Mornings that she insisted on meeting Epstein back in 2011 because she wanted to see 'who this man was'. "After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage," the pair tweeted. My god, I feel terrible for those young women. By 2006 the foundation was by far the worlds largest. Go in with confidence. I am dipping my toe in the water a little bit,' she said, adding that she 'definitely' wants to be in love again. The organisation has spent billions fighting causes such as infectious diseases and encouraging vaccinations in children. As noted by theIndependent, her interest in math and computer science really started to pay off, and after she got her hands on an Apple computer (sorry, Bill! What a life this lady has lived. She later wrote The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World (2019). Certainly, I wish him well. Melinda gave birth to their first child, a daughter named Jennifer Katharine Gates, in 1996. "I needed to take a different path. As noted by the Los Angeles Times, Gates has been a vocal advocate for women's rights, particularly about access to contraception, which goes against the very nature of the religion in which she was brought up. He was abhorrent, evil personified. Because he was so busy running Microsoft, Bill wasn't initially sure if tying the knot was for him. "But I certainly had no idea that I would fall in love with Bill or that we would get married. Bill Gates, 65, is the fourth wealthiest person in the world, according to Forbes, and is worth $124bn (89bn). During an interview, talking about Gates, Melinda said, Methodical it seems even in matters of the heart writing a list on a whiteboard with the pros and the cons of getting married.. 'I did not like that he had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein. Because when you lift up women, you lift up humanity," she writes. Friends is a different word for me. to stop sending flirtatious emails to employees. Ultimately, the next global threat came in the form of the novel coronavirus that rapidly spread after first surfacing in China in late 2019. And we should. ", "He called me an hour later to suggest we get together that night," Melinda wrote in the post. Despite their differences and even after parting ways, Microsoft founder Bill Gates reflected on his thoughts about his failed marriage and divorce with his ex-wife Melinda. Melinda Gates in childhood And so I think, you know, we knew that when the divorce was gonna be announced that it would be a surprise to people," she said. "The world is finally waking up to the fact that none of us can move forward when half of us are held back," she said at the time. "She was one of the best students I ever had." In her recent memoir The Moment of Lift, she wrote about her childhood, life and private struggles as the wife of a famous figure and and stay-at-home mother with three kids. Gates remained committed to change the state of education in the United States, and through her foundations Gates Millennium Scholars program, she has helped students fund their studies. Melinda and Bill Gates received honorary degrees from the University of Cambridge (2009). She found his sense of humor surprising and refreshing within the context of the corporate climate of the times. Oh, college. I learned as a leader that I could do it. Winblad added to Time: "We share our thoughts about the world and ourselves. "I told him he wasn't spontaneous enough for me. Its been a challenging stretch of time for our whole family. He was awful.'. While raising three kids as a single mom, Gina put all three of her children through college because of her relentless work ethic.. The philanthropist said that jobs in computer science are some of the most needed, and girls should be filling the spots. It's 2022 and I'm actually really excited about what's to come and life ahead of me.'. I remain dedicated to my work at the Gates Foundation in partnership with Melinda, where our focus is to help reduce global inequities, giving every person the chance to live a healthy and productive life.". Of course, Melinda Gates finally met Bill Gates when she started working at Microsoft, and the rest is history. 'He was abhorrent, evil personified. We are friendly at this point. The pair both posted the statement announcing their divorce on Twitter. "Well, I think it's really important to say, look, I had a lot of tears for many days. Bill reportedly used a blackboard to write out the pros and cons of dating Melinda (to be honest, we've all made a very similar list), and, clearly, the positives outweighed the negatives. And, you know, that might come over time. Instead, it compelled other organizations, firms, and even countries to help underwrite programs. In their joint statement posted on Twitter, Bill and Melinda asserted that they "no longer believe[d]" that they could grow as a couple to put it simply, they had reached the end of the line. Bill and Melinda Gates had been married since 1994, raised three kids, were worth $130.5 billion, and ran a namesake philanthropic enterprise boasting a $49.8 billion endowment. When Melinda French Gates and Bill Gates were married in 1994, she really thought that they would be married "till death do us part." Instead, after 27 years together, the couple announced their . Bill and Melinda Gates are known for their privacy, especially within the press. March 3, 2022 / 9:43 AM At a Microsoft employee dinner, of all places. He developed such a strong bond with Winblad that Bill made sure to keep her in his life after they split in 1987. New York CNN Business . "It will be a big . 1894 shipwreck found in Lake Huron, confirming "powerful, tragic story", Garland to face Congress amid ongoing special counsel investigations, FBI chief says agency feels pandemic likely started with Chinese lab leak. He may be of the most successful men on the planet, but Melinda said she was less than impressed when the Microsoft billionaire asked her out for the first time. Melinda Gates dancing with her father-in-law at her wedding to Bill Gates. Melinda gates with her family The couple decided to end their 27-year-long marriage in 2021. Counting Buffetts pledge, its assets would total roughly $60 billion in the next 20 years. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Although the foundation's initial goal was to place computers and Microsoft products in libraries all over the United States, over the years Melinda expanded the organization's vision to include worldwide improvements in education. "The data is clear: empowered women transform societies. I mean, it's 2022 and I'm actually really excited about what's to come and life ahead for me," she said. 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.". 01:41. Jennifer Smith, Chief Reporter Billionaire MacKenzie Scott has married a science teacher at her children's school, two years after her divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The couples divorce was finalized in August 2021. Through these changes, the foundation underscored its commitment to solving health problems around the world, with particular emphasis on developing treatments and vaccines for malaria, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis; controlling insects that transmit diseases; and developing superfoods in the fight against malnutrition. As noted by CNBC, Melinda worked as a general manager of Microsoft, working on a number of projects that helped get the company off the ground. Blame the Federal Reserve. "We ask for space and privacy for our family as we begin to navigate this new life.". Within his line of work, Ray worked on the Apollo mission, and Gates spent her childhood (naturally) watching NASA rocket launches talk about an experience to be inspired by (via the Los Angeles Times). The pair have, however, made no public hint of their financial plans. Getty Images He met his first wife while they were both studying journalism at Brigham Young University in Utah in the mid 1980s. "Bringing women and underrepresented minorities into the field guarantees that we see the full range of solutions to the real problems that people face in the world," Gates said as part of the annual Computer Science Education Week. This is painful stuff. "When Bill first asked me out, he said, 'I was thinking maybe we could go out two weeks from tonight,'" Melinda recalled in a Facebook post in 2015. The. [2]LinkedIn During her college days, she was a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, Beta Rho Chapter. In 2006 she restructured the organization. It was a substantial error in judgement.'. She is married to Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft. When Melinda French Gates and Bill Gates were married in 1994, she really thought that they would be married "till death do us part." Gates would go on to pursue a degree in computer science (more on that later), and coding has, in fact, stayed a very relevant and personal topic to her. In 2012 Melinda pledged $560 million toward improving access to contraception for women in third-world countries. Before meeting one tech pioneer, Melinda Gates was inspired by another computer genius' work Instagram We all know that Melinda Gates is (but soon won't be) married to the co-founder of Microsoft, one of the largest tech companies in existence, but her love affair with computers started with a rival company. She cried 'on the carpet' at times while working through the divorce that they announced in May last year, She had forgiven Bill for a 2000 affair but he had to answer to reports of multiple affairs, The pair are 'friendly' now but are not 'friends': 'I wish him well,' she said, Every billionaire should give away at least half of their wealth, She does not blame herself for the divorce, saying 'I did nothing wrong, I hold my head high', She has launched her own company now called Pivotal Ventures but will continue to work at The Gates Foundation. Melinda also spoke about the experience to The Sunday Times in April 2019, noting that Bill was upfront about his thought process. As The Seattle Times reported, Gates was a member of the freshmen advisory council while a student and served as a campus tour guide (imagine having gotten a tour of Duke from the lady who would become one of the most influential people in the world?). In 1987, she joined the Microsoft Corporation as a product manager, developing multimedia and interactive products like Cinemania, Encarta, Publisher, Microsoft Bob, Money, Works (Macintosh), and Word. French Gates said previously that her reasons for the divorce could be distilled into no longer being able to trust what we had., It wasnt one moment or one specific thing that happened, French Gates told host Gayle King on CBS This Morning. In the same year, she sat together with Bill Gates (an American Business tycoon) for dinner at a trade fair in New York. As she wrote on her Facebook page, "Bill and I believe that education is the great equalizer.". Post her marriage to Bill Gates, Melinda came to be known as Melinda French Gates. Frederic Stevens/Getty Images Meanwhile, The Post has learned that the decision to divorce was hard on. As of Monday, Gates' net worth was around $152 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which means he and French Gates could each be worth around $76 billion following the. . We are no longer accepting comments on this article. This is not some small family foundation that's going to fall apart because a marriage is falling apart," he said. An in-depth profile on Gates in The Seattle Times reported that by Gates' own admittance, her childhood was normal and that her parents were "loving and supportive." Gates also served as an advisor to the school and helped implement the institution's ambitious laptop sharing program (via The Gates Foundation). 2022 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. And I do feel like I'm turning a page in the chapter now. Melinda said she found Bill - methodical it seems even in matters of the heart - writing a list on a whiteboard with the "pros and the cons of getting married". Before he met Melinda after she joined Microsoft as a product manager in 1987, Bill had been dating Ann Winblad, a software entrepreneur and venture capitalist, according to Time. They discussed some of their philanthropic work with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation at the conference. So why the shift in values? That year, she and her husband co-founded what was later to become the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Given her mother's dedication to education, it makes complete sense that one of Gates' initiatives through her foundation is education. 2023 BBC. Melinda Gates has revealed that she is dating again following her split from Bill Gates.. Bill and Melinda Gates announced the end of their 27-year relationship Monday, shocking the business and philanthropic worlds. ", In response, Bill revealed, "I do the dishes every night other people volunteer, but I like the way I do it.". But the odd thing about COVID is that it gave me the privacy to do what I needed to do.. By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. After tying the knot on the Hawaiian island of Lanai on Jan. 1, 1994, Bill and Melinda went on to have three kids: son Rory John, 21, and daughters Phoebe Adele, 18, and Jennifer Katharine, 25. 'We certainly have a working relationship. Gina is essentially the Steph Curry of life, making things appear to be way easier than they are, Kasey wrote on LinkedIn, comparing his mother to the NBA legend. If you are lucky enough to be a billionaire, believe me - you can give half of it away and it will not change your life. When hes not covering earthquakes, riots, plane crashes, or presidential elections, Jon spends his time volunteering as a scout leader, Little League coach, cheerleader, at dance recitals and school award ceremonies, and playing with his children in the back yard, according to the About the Author section. In 1993, Melinda and Bill Gates went on a vacation to Africa. "I loved my time at Duke, and ever since I graduated, I've stayed in touch." Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, are ending their marriage after 27 years. I always feel connected to Duke," Melinda said about her alma mater. 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