What Bill and Melinda Gates Have Said About Their Divorce

In a joint statement posted on X on May 3, 2021, Bill and Melinda Gates announced their decision to divorce after 27 years of marriage.

"After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage," the ex-couple said. "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."

They added, "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. We ask for space and privacy for our family as we begin to navigate this new life."

Melinda gave further details about her divorce from Bill in a June 2024 interview with Time. She revealed they called it quits during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 while their three children — Jennifer, Rory and Phoebe — were living with them.

"It gave us the privacy to do what needed to be done in private," she said. "You know, I separated first before I made the full decision about a divorce. And to be able to do that in private while I'm still trying to take care of the kids, while still making certain decisions about how you're going to disentangle your life - thank God."

When asked about their separation's effect on their private charitable organization, Melinda clarified their split was "more of a personal thing," adding the foundation, her kids and herself "are the three biggest buckets."

"And I wanted to make sure that when we came through it to the other side — when I came through it on my side — all of those pieces were intact," she continued.

Melinda eventually stepped down from her role as co-chair of the foundation.

In the same published interview, Melinda admitted that getting a divorce was "hard" after initially calling it "a horrible thing."

"It's just painful. It's awful when you realize you need one," she stated.

At one point, Melinda realized her union with Bill was not working anymore.

"I had some reasons I just couldn't stay in that marriage anymore," she told Fortune. "But the odd thing about COVID is that it gave me the privacy to do what I needed to do. It's unbelievably painful, in innumerable ways, but I had the privacy to get through it."

According to Melinda, she "kept working with the person she was moving away from" but was able to cope with being on her own eventually.

"I learned as a leader that I could do it. It reminded me that the foundation calls me to be my best," she added. "We work with unbelievable partners around the world who were also struggling during COVID. I was on a video call with a woman who had lost her father, and a week later she's on a call with me, right? My main concern, of course, was trying to protect my kids through it. And we got to the other side."

In January, the Microsoft founder said losing Melinda was "the mistake I most regret."

"You would have to put that at the top of the list," he told The Times. "There are others but none that matter. The divorce thing was miserable for me and Melinda for at least two years."

People shared excerpts from Melinda's new book The Next Day: Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward, out on April 15, in which she shared the "difficult periods" she went through while she was still married to Bill, including his infidelity.

"Bill has publicly acknowledged that he wasn't always faithful to me," she wrote in the book, mentioning the "deeply disturbing" article about Bill's past meetings with late s-- offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Per Melinda, she started to have a bad feeling about her marriage when she experienced panic attacks each night she had nightmares about a house collapsing around her.

"As dramatic as it sounds, I knew, in that moment, that I was going to have to make a decision — and that I was going to have to make it by myself," she continued.

Nearly four years after they finalized their divorce, Melinda spoke candidly about her current relationship with her ex-husband.

"One of the most important things in my life is being present for the big moments in my children's — and now my grandchildren's — lives," Melinda told People ahead of her book's release. "Naturally, Bill and I see each other every now and then at family events, such as graduations. When we do, it's friendly."