Bill and Melinda Gates announce divorce

(Image credit: AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

published 3 May 2021

Bill and Melinda Gates announced on Monday they are divorcing after 27 years of marriage.

Bill Gates is the co-founder of Microsoft, and the couple began dating in 1987 after Melinda Gates joined the company as a product manager. They married in 1994, and in 2000, launched the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the world's largest philanthropies. Based in Seattle, the foundation has an endowment worth almost $50 billion, and focuses on education in the United States and global health and development.

In a statement, Bill and Melinda Gates said that after "a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage. 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. 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 the next phase of our lives."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.