In a statement posted on Twitter it was announced that “after a great deal of thought” Microsoft founder Bill Gates and wife Melinda Gates have filed for a divorce. Over the course of the last two decades the Gates couple has remained one of the most influential couples in the world. The couple has redefined philanthropy, world health initiatives, and more, through their private foundation The Bill & Melinda Gates.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, which was a product of the merging of William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Learning Foundation, was led by the founder of one of the biggest tech corps in the world- Microsoft, Bill Gates, and his wife, Melinda Gates. Over the course of years, the foundation has made significant impact on issues such as early education in developing countries, disease control and prevention, and has made strides in several sectors similar to that. The foundation has also spent over $1 billion to fight against multiple waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Details of Bill and Melinda’s Divorce

In a statement posted on Twitter, Mr. and now Ms. Gates said how the couple took its fair share of thought of work on their relationship and have now come to the conclusion to end their marriage.

“After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage,” said the statement.

The statement went on to read that the couple together “built a foundation that works all over the world to enable all people to lead healthy, productive lives” and how they “continue to share a belief in that mission,” however, they both can “no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in this next phase of our lives”.

Meanwhile, the foundation too in its statement said how the duo will “continue to work together to shape and approve foundation strategies, advocate for the foundation’s issues and set the organization’s overall direction.”

Although there is no official word on how the divorce is to affect Bill Gates’ net worth, it should be observed that there’s a significant chunk of it that’s not donated to the foundation. Currently Bill Gates is the 4th richest human on the globe with a net worth of $146 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.

No word on finance structuring

Currently there’s no official confirmation as to how the duo will be structuring their finances post-divorce. Although the word on the street is that the couple already had a prenuptial agreement at place to avoid confusion or disparity. The now officially separated couple have an immense wealth at its disposal which includes a mansion worth $130 million. According to reports, as per the separation agreement filed at the King County Superior Court, the duo has sought the division of assets equally.

Bill Gates, who founded Microsoft in 1975 owns 49% of the company. He left the company’s day to day business activities last year by exiting as one of the board of directors. He also exited from the board of Berkshire Hathaway, the multi-billion-dollar worth conglomerate that’s operated by another philanthropist, Warren Buffet.

How did Melinda and Bill become the power couple of the world?

Back in 1987, Melinda Gates joined Bill’s Microsoft as a product manager. According to a Netflix documentary, the couple met at a dinner later in New York and that’s where the seeds of their relationship were sown.

According to Bill, the couple cared a lot for each other and given their impact on each other’s lives, Bill himself said how, “there were only two possibilities: either, we were going to break up or we were going to get married.”

For Melinda, the geeky tech wizard that was to be her husband later, wrote a list of the “pros and cons of marrying each other before taking the decision. As the pros outweighed the cons, the couple decided to marry. They did the deed in 1994 at Lanai, an island on Hawaii. One of the most significant highlights of this event was Bill hiring all the local helicopter to stop media and unwanted people to fly over to the wedding venue.