In early May, we learned that Melinda Gates had filed for divorce from Bill Gates. The situation went from “oh, I bet there’s not that much drama” to “holy sh-t, there is non-stop drama with this one” in a matter of days. Melinda clearly retained some world-class publicists, lawyers and crisis managers. Bill Gates came across like a serial philanderer, serial sexual harasser and a man too stupid to disassociate himself from Jeffrey Epstein. Well… three months later, their divorce is already finalized. We don’t know the terms of the financial settlement. (I’m using TMZ because they broke the story before the WSJ, NYT and CNBC.)
Bill and Melinda Gates are each officially a very eligible bachelor and bachelorette … because their bitter divorce is now a done deal. Court records confirm the judge signed off on their divorce Monday … talk about a way to start your week.
As we reported … Melinda filed for divorce back in May after 27 years of marriage, and there was no prenup. Bill’s net worth is estimated at more than $130 billion, so the divorce settlement could leave Melinda over $65 billion.
Melinda’s been cashing in on the split for months … remember, Bill lined her pockets with nearly $2 billion in stocks the day she filed divorce docs, and the following day, he hooked her up with 25 million shares of Mexican Coca-Cola.
The judge’s signature ties a bow on an acrimonious divorce. As we reported, Bill’s family was extremely upset with him earlier this year, when everyone BUT Bill went to a private island when they thought news of the divorce would be made public. We’re told the family is upset over allegations he was coming on to different women … some of whom worked at his company.
We just obtained the final divorce documents, and here are some of the details. Neither party will get spousal support. Also, Melinda will not change her last name. The document says all property is divided pursuant to the “Separation Contract.” Translation — when they decided to split, they signed a document outlining who gets what. They have no minor children so there are no child custody or child support issues. The prenup addresses support their kids get as adults.
Another curious item from the divorce: while Melinda is keeping the Gates name (she’ll be known as Melinda French Gates) and she will remain on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, she will leave the foundation in 2023 if, after two years’ time, they conclude that they don’t really want to work with each other. A two-year review period, if you will.
When we first learned of the divorce, we heard that Bill transferred $1.8 billion in stocks to Melinda. No one has gotten their hands on the financial agreement… yet. But I would think that if the settlement is favorable to Melinda, she’ll probably leak it at some point. I doubt she got half of the reported $127 billion fortune. I bet she walked away with – just a guess – something like $20-25 billion.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.
Unfortunately I don’t think Melinda French Gates will turn out to be as awesome as Mackenzie Scott. The Gates Foundation is pretty shady-not in the injecting microchips via vaccine way more so the it’s a massive tax evasion scheme way.
Melinda French Gates has already done some pretty impressive stuff. We’ll see what comes next.
This. Because of her views they have some odd and sometimes counterproductive stances on women’s health. She also “reportedly” was against the giving pledge and partially wanted to win big in the divorce to pass the money to her kids. One rich jerk beat an even worse rich jerk.
Yeah, she’s not great. The Gates Foundation really f***ed over public education in the US with their private money – they did more harm than good. They heavily supported many corporate reforms of education, even though research shows those aren’t effective, and really set the public education agenda for years. They are the reason states have Common Core – that’s how influential they are.
I actually went to a high school that received funding from the foundation to try an alternative setup. My freshman year was the first year of the program and I think it was scrapped by the time my younger brother (by 5 years) was graduating.
When talking about what my high school was like I often forget that the structure was just an “experiment” we went through for a few years and not at all what most public schools are like.
just remember that melinda french gates of the past decided to marry bill gates. she made that decision and that reflects what kind of person she is. (i dont know this for sure but wasnt microsoft already super super successful when she was….working there and they got together? i cant remember)
The warped reality in which you have literally billions of dollars to give away, still leaving you with billions of dollars–it makes me kind of sick, honestly.
I can’t even wrap my head around that kind of money.
Right? Seems like you could pretty much solve the world’s problems with that kind of money.
Same here. When I know kids are at home without food and proper yearly exams. I could go on and on. It’s nauseating.
The TMZ quote “Melinda’s been cashing in” makes me sick. They were married 27 years and started a huge foundation that she worked for, not to mention she worked for Microsoft before that. They reduce her to a scheming gold digger.
Well, they do play to a misogynist crowd, don’t they? No one but someone who hates women would look at the facts and come to that conclusion.
‘Cashing in’ is a cheap shot. They raised a family together, who by the way seem to be on her side.
Yeah, that jumped out at me too. I also hate when marital assets are referred to as one partner’s money that they’re “giving” to the other in a divorce – obviously not everything is a marital asset, but also, not all of it is exclusively his money.
that’s just TMZ being TMZ – they’ll do that to anybody.
yes, especially women, but to anybody.
Money hoarding is vile, IMO.
No one requires a $billion.
Billionaires could donate $10M a day and in 24 hours, it’s back.
It’s about ego and power.
It will be interesting to see how/if they go forward.
I won’t hold my breath on charity giving from Bill.
Team Ms. Scott!
Admire her after Bezos life and charity support.
I was wondering what was happening with the divorce. We were flooded with PR scandalizing Bill Gates, clearly from Melinda‘s camp, and then crickets. I’m guessing the PR accomplished what it was meant to and she was promised whatever she wanted to stop talking?
When a woman is done, she is DONE.
I wish she had decided to take back her name.
They’ve been married for what, three decades? At that point, Gates IS her name. I dont blame her for keeping it.
your name is who you identify as, not what was on your birth certificate.
I figured they had to be pretty far ahead in divorce proceedings when the announced the divorce. Anyways best of luck to them both I suppose.
Well nothing is a surprise. I said back them I had inside info and was kinda shouted down
Well all my inside info 💯 true. I knew it all back then. .the cheating etc so much crap
Man, even my measly divorce took longer to finalize than the Gates’.
they probably spent several years preparing a ‘safety net’ and in general preparing for in private it is what im thinking