"After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage," the statement reads.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is one of the world's most philanthropic initiatives founded in 2000. Since then, the foundation has spent $53.8 billion on a wide range of efforts to lift people out of poverty, get them vaccines and other health related solutions.
"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," the statement says. "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."
The couple met each other at Microsoft where Melinda was the firm's first female employee. Over the years, together, through their foundation the couple travelled around the world urging rich people to spend their resources to donate and help health and other social causes.
In March 2020, Bill Gates
stepped down from the boards of Microsoft and Berkshire Hathaway to "dedicate more time to his philanthropic priorities," including work to tackle climate change. Melinda founded Pivotal Ventures, which is an investment firm.
"We ask for space and privacy for our family as we begin to navigate this new life," the pair said in their statement Monday.
Bill and Melinda Gates Story
Bill and Melinda Gates met at Microsoft where Melinda was the first female employee. Over the years Bill Gates, summed it up like this in a 2019 Netflix documentary series: “In the case of Melinda, it is truly an equal partner”.
“She’s a lot like me in that she is optimistic and she is interested in science. She is better with people than I am. She’s a tiny bit less hard core about knowing, you know, immunology, than I am," said Bill Gates.
What's Melinda's Story?
Melinda Ann French, born in Texas, who studied computer science at Duke University. Her first job was to tutor little children on computer programming. She then became a marketing manager with Microsoft.
In 2000, Melinda along with Bill Gates set up the Gates Foundation. "As I thought about strong women of history, I realized that they stepped out in some way", Melinda Gates said about getting into the public spaces to work on social needs.
/shethepeople/media/agency_attachments/iUYfaBbcMozaYLoGnoov.png)
Follow Us/shethepeople/media/post_banners/HvlGR2i6aZwD3MR2oygu.jpg)