While Bill and Melinda Gates have publicly maintained that their divorce will be an amicable one, sources close to the couple claim this will not be a “friendly split” and that it was a long time coming.
Speaking with TMZ, sources said that Melinda Gates planned to announce the divorce all the way back in March when she allegedly rented Calivigny Island in Grenada for $132,000 a night for privacy purposes. Though the Gates’ children and their significant others were invited, Bill reportedly was not welcome due to the “considerable amount of acrimony associated with the split.”
“We’re told virtually everyone in the family took Melinda’s side,” reported TMZ. “Another way of putting it … we’re told they were very angry at Bill, and that’s why he wasn’t invited.”
TMZ concluded that the big “takeaway” from sources is that Melinda Gates is furious with Bill for past deeds.
“So here’s the takeaway,” the outlet alleged. “First, we’re told this was not a friendly split. We’re told Melinda and most of the family were furious at Bill for various things they claim he had done. Second … it’s clear this divorce has been a long time in the making.”
When announcing their split this week, the couple said in a joint statement that they would continue to run the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation together, one of the largest charity organizations in the world.
“After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage,” they 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. 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.”
— Bill Gates (@BillGates) May 3, 2021
Details as to what led to the split remain scant at this point, though a TIME article in 1997 noted that Bill Gates would spend one weekend a year with his ex-girlfriend, Ann Winblad, a software entrepreneur, and venture capitalist, per an “arrangement” with his wife.
“Even now, Gates has an arrangement with his wife that he and Winblad can keep one vacation tradition alive,” the outlet alleged. “Every spring, as they have for more than a decade, Gates spends a long weekend with Winblad at her beach cottage on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where they ride dune buggies, hang-glide and walk on the beach.”
“We can play putt-putt while discussing biotechnology,” Gates said at the time.
As The Daily Wire reported, Bill and Melinda Gates had no pre-nuptial agreement and that his $130 billion fortune is now in play.
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