Melinda Gates has reflected on the end of her marriage. The 58-year-old, who officially divorced Bill Gates in August 2021, got candid about their split after 27 years of marriage, noting that timing played a factor in her experience.
“The odd thing about COVID is that it gave me the privacy to do what I needed to do,” she shared in an Oct. 3 interview with Fortune. “It’s unbelievably painful, in innumerable ways, but I had the privacy to get through it.” While Bill and Melinda were united in a marriage, they are also unified in their work with their eponymous foundation, which launched in 2000. For Melinda, continuing to do business alongside Bill amid their split wasn’t easy.
“I also kept working with the person I was moving away from, and I need to show up and be my best self every single day,” she told the outlet. “So even though I might be crying at 9 a.m. and then have to be on a videoconference at 10 a.m. with the person I’m leaving, I have to show up and be my best.” She added, “And I learned as a leader that I could do it.”
The pair announced that they were parting ways back in May 2021 after tying the knot in 1994 and since welcoming three children: daughter Jennifer, 26, son Rory, 23, and daughter Phoebe, 20. Melinda shared with Fortune that protecting her kids during the divorce was her “main concern.”
As for why they called it quits, the Texas native made it clear there were multiple troubles in her eyes, adding, “I had some reasons I just couldn’t stay in that marriage anymore.” It’s not the first time Melinda has expressed that there were many factors which ultimately led to the split.
Back in March, Melinda told Gayle King on CBS Morning that Bill’s previous meetings with late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein didn’t sit well with her.
“As I said it’s not one thing, it was many things,” she said at the time. “But I did not like that he’d had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein, no.” During that interview, Melinda also cited his alleged infidelity, referring to an intimate relationship Bill allegedly had with a former employee in 2000. In 2019, The Wall Street Journal reported that Microsoft had launched an investigation into the allegation from 2000. At the time, a spokeswoman for Bill told the outlet, “There was an affair almost 20 years ago which ended amicably.”