Bill and Melinda Gates part ways; questions loom over fate of $124bn fortune

The fourth-richest people in the world, with net worth of $124bn (£89bn), have decided to part ways after 27 years of marriage, saying they “no longer believe” they can “grow together as a couple”.

Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder turned philanthropist, and his wife Melinda Gates, who jointly run the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a financer of global health and disease prevention projects, announced their divorce in a statement on Monday.

“After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage,” the couple said in a joint statement posted on Twitter.

They went on to state that they had “built a foundation that works all over the world to enable all people to lead healthy, productive lives” but they “no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in this next phase of our lives.”

In a statement, the Gates Foundation said the couple “will continue to work together to shape and approve foundation strategies, advocate for the foundation’s issues and set the organization’s overall direction,”  

The surprise announcement came less than two weeks after they appeared at a virtual event for healthcare workers fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.

Melinda, 56, in the past acknowledged that the pair’s marriage had been “incredibly hard”; saying her 65-year old husband regularly works 16-hour days and can find it hard to make time for the family.

“Believe me, I can remember some days that were so incredibly hard in our marriage where you thought, ‘Can I do this?’” she said in an interview with the Sunday Times in 2019 to mark their 25th anniversary.

“When he was having trouble making the decision about getting married, he was incredibly clear that it was not about me, it was about ‘Can I get the balance right between work and family life?’” she added.

It is not the first high-profile divorce though. In 2019, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon separated from his wife MacKenzie Scott, with latter receiving Amazon shares worth $36 billion at the time.

Fate of the fortune

Their divorce has raised multiple questions about the fate of their mammoth fortune, most of which has not yet been donated to their foundation.

They are the owners of the largest chunk of farmland in America and have made massive investments though Cascade Investment, which manages the rich husband’s personal wealth.

They also own large stakes in the Four Seasons hotel chain, the Canadian National Railway and AutoNation, the country’s largest chain of car dealerships, among other companies.

Their foundation with 1,600 staff members employed around the world is involved in global public health and development projects, and has played a significant role in putting together the global response to the Covid-19 pandemic, investing in vaccines and helping shape Covax, the global initiative organizing the purchase of vaccines for 92 poor countries and other nations.

Pair faces criticism

While the pair has won praise for their efforts, they have also faced criticism for working to protect the intellectual property rights of private companies, resisting calls of developing world countries to open access to Covid vaccines in a bid to put an end to the pandemic.

Asked on Sky News last week whether he thought it would be useful to share the vaccines with poor countries, Gates answered in the negative.

"The thing that's holding things back, in this case, is not intellectual property It's not like there's some idle vaccine factory, with regulatory approval, that makes magically safe vaccines," Gates was quoted as saying.

His remarks were slammed by activists globally, who called for temporary waiving of patent protections. One activist went on to say that the "Billionaire Bill Gates" has personally appointed himself as the world health czar.

Activists noted that Gates' comments highlighted the profit-making aspect in the face of the deadly pandemic that has gripped the world.   

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