Bill Gates Admits Wrecking His Marriage Of 27 Years To Melinda
American business magnate, software developer and investor, Bill Gates has blamed himself for “messing up” his marriage to Melinda French Gates as he opened up about his messy divorce.
In an “off the record” Q&A session at Allen & Co.’s billionaire-packed Sun Valley conference last week, CNBC host Becky Quick asked the Microsoft founder about his divorce from Melinda Gates, which the couple announced in May.
One attendee at the camp said the dad-of-three was “emotional” and on the verge of tears as he spoke about his divorce. The attendee said:
“He fessed up to messing up. He basically referred to the fact that [the divorce] was his fault. He did seem a bit emotional about it. He might have been on the verge of tears.”
A second attendee told the Post that the private Q&A session was “very moving.”
The author and philanthropist didn’t mention the word “affair” during the discussion, the first attendee said.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Microsoft had investigated Gates over 2019 claims that he engaged in a sexual relationship with a staffer over a number of years.
Gates had affairs that were an open secret to those around him, Vanity Fair reported in June.
Microsoft and the Gates Foundation directed the Post’s requests for comment to Gates Ventures, which declined to comment.
A Gates representative did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
The “summer camp for billionaires” was attended by some of the most powerful people in sports, technology and media.
Bill met Melinda French after she started working at Microsoft in 1987. Melinda joined Microsoft as a product manager, and the two sat together at a business dinner that year in New York.
They began dating, but as Bill told a Netflix documentary:
“We cared a lot for each other and there were only two possibilities: either, we were going to break up or we were going to get married.”
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Melinda said she found Bill – methodical it seems even in matters of the heart – writing a list on a whiteboard with the “pros and the cons of getting married”.
The duo who raised three children together, got married in 1994 on the Hawaiian island of Lanai, reportedly hiring up all the local helicopters to stop unwanted guests flying over.
Bill Gates stepped down from Microsoft’s board last year to focus on his philanthropic activities.