Bill and Melinda Gates announced to end their marriage after 27 years of togetherness but will continue to work together at their philanthropic foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The couple announced that after a great deal of thought and a lot of work on their relationship, they both had decided to end the marriage.
— Bill Gates (@BillGates) May 3, 2021
Bill, the billionaire founder of Microsoft met Melinda in the 1980s when she became part of his Microsoft firm and they are parents to three children.
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Co-chaired by Bill and Melinda, the foundation was founded in 2000 and so far, it has spent $54.8 billion on a wide range of initiatives.
The foundation has headquarters in Washington while regional offices are located in India, China, United Kingdom, Germany, and South Africa.
It focuses on issues like gender equality, global development, growth and opportunity programs, poverty alleviation, health, and the environment.
The Gates along with investor Warren Buffett are behind the Giving Pledge, which calls on billionaires to commit to giving away the majority of their wealth to good causes, reported BBC.
Additionally, the grants by Gates’ foundation also include some $1.75 billion to vaccine initiatives and research amid covid-19 pandemic.
Whereas, the couple fueled the foundation with more than $36 billion between 1994 and 2018 while it has net assets of more than $43 billion as of 2019.
“We continue to share a belief in that mission and will continue our work together at the foundation, but we no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in this next phase of our lives”, statement by the couple read.
Unlike world’s richest person Jeff Bezos and his former wife MacKenzie, the Gates choose to end their personal relationship while keeping their professional lives apart.
Jeff and MacKenzie had parted ways after 25 years in a marriage and the split caused Amazon CEO $38 billion in the settlement.