Bill and Melinda Gates have filed for divorce after 27 years of marriage. The billionaire couple announced the divorce in a tweet on Bill Gates’ Twitter page on Monday, May 3.
Gates, 65, who is worth a reported $130 billion, and Melinda, 56, started dating in 1987 after meeting at a trade show in New York, WENN.com reported. They wed on New Year’s Day in 1994. She is a former general manager of Microsoft.
“After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage,” a joint statement read. “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.”
— Bill Gates (@BillGates) May 3, 2021
Bill Gates, is best known as chairman and CEO of Microsoft, which he co-founded with childhood friend Paul Allen in 1975.
Gates stepped down as CEO of Microsoft in January 2000 to work full-time at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The foundation has been criticized for its fight to end transmissible diseases such AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria by injecting children with experimental vaccines in third world countries.
The foundation has donated at least $1.75 billion in the fight against the coronavirus. Most of the funding has gone toward producing vaccines.
