Bill Gates' ex-wife gives reasons for divorce for first time

Bill Gates and Melinda Gates announced their sudden separation on May 3, 2022 after 27 years of marriage.

But in the beginning, the couple did not elaborate on the reason for their divorce, nor did they explain why they waited so long for their separation.

Now, months later, Melinda French Gates, 57, is talking about ending her marriage.

During an interview, she was asked by a Microsoft official about Bill Gates' affair 20 years ago, which was confirmed by the Microsoft co-founder in May 2021.

"Of course I believe in forgiveness, so in the beginning I thought we should work on it," she said.

"But that was not the only reason for the break-up," she said.

She added that in recent times she has shed a lot of tears and got angry but now she is very excited about his future.

"I embarked on a journey of healing the wounds and I feel like I'm on the other side now, and I feel like I've turned the page on a chapter," she said.

The interview will air on American TV on March 3, with more details to come.

Earlier in December 2021, Bill Gates had said in reference to divorce that 2021 was the most unusual and difficult year of his life.

"I can't deny that this was a very sad year for me," she said in his annual blog.

Bill Gates and Melinda Gates met at Microsoft in 1987 and were married in 1994. They suddenly announced their separation on May 3.

Announcing their separation in a joint statement on Twitter on the occasion, they said that after living together for many years, they are now realizing that they can no longer move forward as a married couple.

Melinda Gates filed for divorce in King County, Washington.

The CNN report, citing court documents released on August 2, said the couple's divorce agreement was reached under a separation contract, which was not made public.

When the couple announced their separation, they said they would run all their business and welfare projects together.

That means they will continue to run Bill & Melinda Gates together, but in July the agency said in a statement that a two-year trial was being planned to see if the couple could get along properly. 

The CEO of the company, Mark Suzman, had said that if after two years, someone decided that they could not work together as co-chairs, then Melinda French Gates would resign from her position.

If that happened then Bill Gates would retain control of the company and buy Melinda's share.

It should be noted that the couple did not elaborate on the reason for the divorce nor did they explain why they waited so long for separation.

However, in various media reports, the possible reason for this was the alleged relationship of Bill Gates with Jeffrey Upston.

On May 11, the Wall Street Journal reported that Bill Gates had previously met with American businessman Jeffrey Upston, who has been accused of providing underage girls for prostitution to the richest men. She committed suicide in a US prison in 2019.

According to the report, Melinda Gates decided to divorce her husband in 2019 after hearing the news of meetings with Jeffrey Upston.

Bill Gates also faced various charges after the divorce was announced.

In another report, the Wall Street Journal surprisingly revealed that Bill Gates had resigned from the board of directors of his company Microsoft in March 2020 because the ongoing company investigation against him had proved that he had sex with a female employee.

The newspaper quoted at least two people involved in the case as saying that Microsoft had received information in 2019 about an old affair with Bill Gates, which was being investigated.

A spokesman for Bill Gates also acknowledged the connection, but said that it was not his fault.

On the other hand, the New York Times in its report also made a shocking revelation about Bill Gates that he has been involved in sexual harassment of female employees of the company in the past.