NEWSBillionaire Bill Gates' Ex-Wife Melinda Receives Shocking Sum Years After Divorce
The longtime couple split in 2021.
Jan. 9 2026, Updated 6:28 p.m. ET
Bill Gates forked over a hefty sum to the private foundation of his ex-wife, Melinda Gates.
Per a Friday, January 9, report by The New York Times, a new tax filing showed that the Microsoft co-founder made a $7.88 billion payment to Melinda’s Pivotal Philanthropies Foundation in 2024.
The couple went their separate ways in 2021 after 27 years of marriage. Their divorce remains among one of the most expensive in history, with the estranged couple reaching an estimated $76 billion settlement.
Bill and Melinda Gates were married for nearly 30 years.
Melinda, 61, resigned from the charity — which focuses on various women's issues — in May 2024.
In a statement at the time, she shared that the tech mogul would give "$12.5 billion to commit to my work for women and families."
The Times theorized that the remaining $4.6 billion may have been donated in 2025, meaning it would not be possible to review just yet. Pivotal Philanthropies confirmed to the outlet that Bill had "fulfilled" the entire $12.5 billion obligation.
Melinda Gates 'Had to' Call Off Marriage to Bill Gates
Melinda Gates revealed she 'had to' split from the tech mogul.
The news of Bill's staggering payment comes less than a year after Melinda revealed she "had to" call her marriage off due to a lack of trust.
The philanthropist made the confession during an April 2025 appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, though she didn't share other details.
She reportedly met with divorce lawyers in 2019 when Bill's connection to late convicted s-- offender Jeffrey Epstein became public.
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Bill Gates Was Pictured in the Epstein Files
Bill Gates was pictured in the Epstein files released in December 2025.
The billionaire was among the high-profile figures pictured in the Epstein files published by the Department of Justice in December 2025.
Other powerful former friends of the pedophile included in the documents were President Donald Trump, ex-prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, former President Bill Clinton, political activist Noam Chomsky, ex-Trump advisor Steve Bannon and disgraced filmmaker Woody Allen.
'It Was Painful for Sure'
The estranged couple share three children.
Melinda admitted that divorcing Bill was extremely difficult, especially as the former pair share three children: Jennifer, 29, Rory, 26 and Phoebe, 23.
"[Divorce is] hard on any family, so I write from my perspective," she explained in an interview while promoting her 2025 memoir, The Next Day, in which she discussed the split.
"It's not something I would wish on anybody," she spilled. "And unfortunately, so many families go through it. It is a big transition."
"And for me, while it was painful for sure, I ended up learning some lessons and there was some growth in there, too," she shared.
