Bill and Melinda Gates Announce Divorce After 27-Years of Marriage

Bill Gates and his wife Melinda Gates, the co-founder of one of the largest philanthropic foundations in the world, on Monday, announced that they will be getting a divorce thereby ending their 27-years long marriage. 

"After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage. We have raised three incredible children and built a foundation that works all over the world to enable all people to lead healthy, productive lives," both of them issued a joint statement on Twitter. 

Even though the pair will be splitting in their personal lives citing that they no longer believe that they can grow as a couple, the pair "will continue to work together to shape and approve foundation strategies, advocate for the foundation's issues and get the organization's overall directions," stated the Gates Foundation. 

"No changes to their roles or the organization are planned. They 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 foundation further stated. 

Bill and Melinda first met in the 1980s after Melinda joined Bill's Microsoft firm. The billionaire couple have three children together, none of them minor as the youngest of the three turned 18 this year. 

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has been involved in philanthropic endeavors. They have given away as much as $50 Billion for the fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic, advocate and work towards the issue of climate change, and champion the cause of women's rights. 

It is still unsure how this divorce is going to impact one of the world's greatest fortunes which according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index is valued at $145.8 billion. 

In 2019, the world saw another billionaire split when Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos and his wife MacKenzie Scott decided to part ways. The divorce immediately made MacKenzie Scott one of the wealthiest people in the world who donated billions of dollars towards causes that were usually overlooked by billionaire philanthropists. 

But unlike Bezos whose wealth was mostly concentrated in Amazon stock, the wealth of the Gates Foundation can be more complex when it will be subjected to split after the couple's divorce. Though Bill Gates's net worth originated with Microsoft, he transferred much of his stake in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. His exact state after leaving Microsoft's boards has not been disclosed yet. Gates's most valuable asset is considered to be the Cascade Investment, which is a holding company he created by selling his Microsoft sales and dividends. Through Cascade, Gates wants to expand towards various other sectors like Real Estate, Energy, Hospitality, and stocks in private companies like Canadian National Railway and Deere & Co. 

The couple filed a joint petition for the dissolution of marriage in the King County Superior Court in Seattle. The couple asked the court to approve their agreement on the division of assets but did not disclose details yet. 

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