‘Never thought I’d be in late 50s and single’: Melinda Gates opens up about divorce from Bill Gates

American philanthropist Melinda French Gates recently opened up about her divorce from billionaire Bill Gates, which she called the “hardest thing” ever.

Melinda parted ways with Bill Gates in May 2021 after 27 years of marriage. “That was the hardest thing I had ever been through in my life,” she said in a conversation with podcaster Jay Shetty.

“I had thought I was going to be married for life. I thought I’d be married for 50-plus years. So all of a sudden, you see that even despite very much work and counseling what you had doesn’t actually exist. And that for me, I couldn’t go forward. There wasn’t enough trust any longer. So it wasn’t something I wished for I certainly didn’t think I would be in my late 50s and be divorced,” she said when asked how hard was it for her to give yourself grace through the divorce.

Melinda Gates, who earlier this year exited the Gates Foundation with $12.5 billion for her own charity work to uplift women and families, said that she didn’t have a problem getting divorced, but “I didn’t know that was going to be me”. “And it was incredibly challenging. I’ve never cried so much in my whole life. And I prayed a lot for grace…for grace for myself for grace for my children for grace for the situation that we would somehow get through this as a family behind the scenes.”

The philanthropist said she prayed to God that separation wouldn’t be public before they were finished. “Because I knew that would be a whole other thing and I think sometimes the only way I got through was because I do have faith. And thank God I had close friends who I could talk to on the hardest days and a good therapist but it is not something I would wish on any family. It is a very very difficult thing to go through because you’re pulling apart something that has been tightly woven together and that you believed in.”

“And I will say though, on the other side, there can be a lot of beauty. Once you get through the rough patches and things finally kind of calm down for the whole family and everybody on the other side, there can be a lot of beauty. So I never thought I’d be in my late 50s I’m about to turn 60 and be single again. who expects that…but I didn’t. But hey it’s pretty great too.”

Months after her divorce, Melinda had said it wasn’t one moment or one specific thing that happened. “There just came a point in time where there was enough there that I realized it just wasn’t healthy and I couldn’t trust what we had,” she said during her TV interview in March 2022.

In May this year, Reuters reported that Melinda was leaving the charitable foundation she co-founded with Bill Gates more than 20 years ago and will get $12.5 billion for her own work to uplift women and families. The billionaire benefactors parted ways in 2021 after 27 years of marriage but had pledged to continue their philanthropic work together. Their final divorce order filed in a Seattle court had no details on an agreement reached between the two on how to divide their marital assets.

“Under the terms of my agreement with Bill, in leaving the foundation, I will have an additional $12.5 billion to commit to my work on behalf of women and families,” Melinda Gates said on social media platform X.