I’ve been thinking a lot about Bill and Melinda Gates and whether there will be any kind of major gossip coming out of their divorce, and whether they’ll fight about money. I mean, when you’ve spent 27 years with a billionaire and raised three children, surely everyone is in a generous mood? Like, as messy as Jeff Bezos’ divorce was, he and Mackenzie Scott kept their money negotiations out of the press, and she walked away free and clear with $36.6 billion. Even though we can guess that Bill and Melinda’s marriage might not have been conventional – the annual “weekend with an ex” vacation is not something most wives would agree to – is there going to be some huge drama? I doubt it. It seems like Bill Gates has already began to make arrangements for Melinda to be well taken care of financially too:
Bill Gates lined his estranged wife’s pocket with nearly $2 BILLION the very same day she filed for divorce … and this revelation is a sign they were working out the property settlement long before the divorce announcement.
The transaction went down like this … an investment firm controlled by Bill transferred millions of shares in two companies to Melinda Monday, the same day the billionaires announced the end of their marriage.Bill’s investment firm, Cascade Investment LLC, sent Melinda more than 14 million shares of Canadian National Railway Co. and more than 2.9 million shares of AutoNation Inc … according to docs obtained by TMZ.
Based on Wednesday’s stock prices, the shares are worth north of $1.8 billion … including about $1.53 billion in Canadian National Railway shares and about $310 million on AutoNation shares.
As we first told you … Melinda filed divorce docs that make it clear there’s no prenup. They signed a separation agreement ahead of the divorce filing, and the stock transfer indicates they are already down the road in dividing assets.It’ll be interesting to see how Bill and Melinda divvy up their assets … and the billion-dollar stock transfer is the first clue.
This seems like a good sign. This seems like they had already gotten some of their ducks in a row before they made their divorce announcement. I just hope this is the start of Melinda’s financial settlement though. Then again, it’s not like she’s going to blow it all on shoes and beach houses. I’m sure the bulk of her divorce settlement will end up going back into the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, or Mel will start her own foundation.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red.
It must have been tricky being married to Bill Gates. Intelligent, intense, neuro divergent and close friends with an ex he sought approval from before marrying Melinda. All the best to both of them.
“Neurodivergent” covers a wide spectrum of conditions and degrees of intensity. It’s not fair to assume that being married to someone who is neurodivergent is “tricky.” Being married has to do with emotional intelligence and the willingness to make “us” a primary concern. That has zero to do with “Neurodivergence,” as you put it.
I doubt there will be much drama around this divorce, though have to admit Bezos’ was fun from a gossip perspective. The way I read their daughter’s post yesterday it almost sounded like the kids, or maybe just her since she’s older and been out of the house longer, are still surprised.
$1.8 billion is like pocket lint to these folks yes?
Yeah that’s barely 1% of their fortune… yawn
I’m telling y’all, this is an asset protection scheme masquerading as a run-of-the-mill middle aged divorce. People with this much money can easily live separate lives if they want (especially with no prenup in place). They can even, for example, have a standing vacation with their ex who they “asked permission” to marry their current spouse.
They know bad things are going to come out about Bill. And lawsuits may follow. I bet he’ll be extremely “generous” with Melinda & the Foundation to shield all that money.
Well, TMZ is saying the entire family is furious with Bill. So, you might be on to something.
I agree.
Him being an advocate of vaccine apartheid is also despicable.
Quite possibly this could be connected to the upcoming Maxwell trial. Who knows.
Something is probably going on so that they want to protect their money even if it doesn’t end up being a bombshell in the news.
The vaccine apartheid is what really hits me. Their foundation could join with a few others to vaccinate India, if he really wants to save lives.
Except people with this much money, or any money really, have loads of asset protection schemes. I do! I don’t buy an embarrassing divorce for that reason
And also why would everyone be pissed at him in that case? Doesn’t add up.
Well the Foundation is one lol. Epstein had money hidden all kinds of places, too, but his victims have been able to get a bite out of his estate, his NYC townhouse had to be sold off for well under market value & his Palm Beach property has been demolished already.
The only thing more embarrassing than a divorce would be staying married to someone connected to that horror show. Especially when your Foundation has touted for years its work with women & girls….
Lizzy I agree. The shoe dropped hard. It’s not just for asset protection. Even if he dropped 100 m. Big deal. This is much bigger.
I was thinking that too-they absolutely could easily live very separate lives. My first thought was that they’ve been separated for a while and one of them is ready to officially move on with someone else.
But something shadier could absolutely be in the works
I also wonder if Melinda Gates is jealous of Mackenzie Bezos? I would be. She left her sketch husband, has financial independence to help others, and is now married to a pretty normal guy.
oh i’m sure more to come out unfortunately. What’s this about a translator that works for the foundation?
The translator has denied having more than a professional relationship w/ Bill. Also, she’s Chinese, and with all the anti-Asian crap going on, I wouldn’t be surprised if this rumor is some gross thing the haters cooked up.
The weirdo MAGA conspiracy theorists are gonna have a field day with this. Glad I stopped visiting CDAN.
Ugh haven’t looked at that fake site in years. Just looked, so poisonous. Supposedly Meghan paid off the author of the book that’s actually nothing like hers. Yuck.
you would be better off not visiting BG
I think he’s crossed way too many lines. The old ‘girlfriend’ story is a stooge. Everyone knows she a 10 years older than him ex from the 90s when a 10 yrs older woman was sexy. There’s no salacious affair. He’s been on the lolita express. I think it’s much worse. Not asset protecting. Not like his money is in his name anyway
I wonder if this quick payment to Melinda isn’t an extra…a bribe to keep her mouth shut about her real reasons for divorce.
I immediately thought it was hush-money gift. There is a reason he gave her nearly $2B on the day she filed and it wasn’t cuz he’s soft and cuddly. He screwed up bad. I don’t know that he did but I think it’s really ugly and it will come out eventually.
Except the money is half hers. As with Mackenzie Scott, the husband isn’t “giving” the wife anything. Gates didn’t build Microsoft on his own. Melinda played an incredibly important role in acting as Bill’s social smoother, especially as an accomplished woman in her own right. Men have been relying on their wives for generations to play that role and, frankly, without the contributions of their wives, those men probably wouldn’t be where they are now.
I’m guessing it’s something significantly more mundane, probably related to their dissolution settlement. Those assets might be something Melinda cared about and Bill really didn’t so there’s no reason to fight over it. Could also be that Bill is releasing his claim to those assets in return for some release on her part (e.g. their mansion) which we didn’t find out about because there are no disclosure requirements or because the assets are held by a controlled entity that financial or gossip reporters don’t necessarily know to look for.
I want to believe it’s the vax apartheid. because that is SO BAD. knowingly putting corporations and profits over saving lives in a global pandemic… I’m pissed at him over it. if he were family I’d be mortified and even more furious! Melinda seems like a genuinely good hearted person. I’m sure she’s put up with a lot. his position on this shows him to be completely heartless. look at what is going on in India right now. could you be with someone who had the power to slow the pandemic and refused to use it because money for big pharma comes first? if it were me, I couldn’t even look at him.
Valid points you make. This could well be the reason, especially given the timing.
I agree. I don’t think we need to be trumping this up any further, that is PLENTY. I mean, yikes. I would consider that “irretrievable.”
I laughed at myself when i reacted with “only $1.8 BILLION?” lol I am so out of the loop on this, especially people trying to make connections to Epstein. Bill really doesn’t give me those kind of creepy vibes. I think that when you are that rich and had been married for so many years, the only real reason to want a divorce is if another person is involved who doesn’t want to date a married guy/woman. Even a looming lawsuit wouldn’t explain it because i’m sure most of their assets are shielded from personal liability. My guess is someone cheated with someone from their foundation.
He never gave me creepy vibes either, but unfortunately, I think I misread that for years. He’s traveled on Epstein’s jet, visited his townhouse multiples times & allowed Epstein to funnel Gates’s donations to MIT. All *after* the conviction in Florida. I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but it’s clear that at the very least, Epstein targeted influential people, particularly in tech, to launder his reputation. And in some cases, it went well beyond that.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/12/business/jeffrey-epstein-bill-gates.html
@Mina_Esq…I agree, there’s a lot of jumping through hoops to create a scandal. What if this is exactly what they say it is. Two people who have been married for decades don’t love each other as romantic partners any longer and want to be free to move on publicly. This happens every day everywhere, just usually with a fraction of the assets involved.
The end of a marriage is sad, death of an idea.It is unfortunate that it could not be resolved privately.
But it seemed that they probably did most of the process behind the scenes before filing, a smart move for people in the public eye.
All the best to both individuals and their children in the future.