“One of the world’s wealthiest couples with a joint fortune estimated at $130 billion, the Gates have channelled billions into charitable work around the globe via their hugely influential foundation”

Multi-millionaire and Microsoft founder Bill Gates and businesswoman Melinda Gates have announced their divorce after 27 years of marriage in which the two billionaires founded one of the most important charities in the world. The couple have decided to end their marriage after a period of much ‘reflection and work.’

Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife and fellow philanthropist Melinda announced on Monday they are divorcing after a 27-year marriage.

In announcing their split on Twitter, the couple said they would continue their joint work on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which funds programs in global health, gender equality, education and other causes.

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

“Over the last 27 years, 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,” they wrote.

“We continue to share a belief in that mission and will continue our work together at the foundation, but we no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in this next phase of our lives.”

The statement offered no additional details on the split but said: “We ask for space and privacy for our family as we begin to navigate this new life.”

In those documents it is revealed that there is no prenuptial agreement between the two, that Melinda has not requested any financial compensation from Bill Gates and that the couple have requested April 2022 as a trial date, although they will probably reach an agreement without the need for a trial.

Bill Gates, 65, was a geeky teenager when he started what would become the world’s most valuable company, and was for a time the world’s richest man and most prominent philanthropist.

He stepped down as Microsoft chief executive in 2008 to devote more time to philanthropy and later left the board, keeping only the title of “founder and technology advisor.”

Melinda Gates, 56, met Bill at Microsoft in 1987 and began dating in the same year after meeting at a trade show in New York, shortly after she joined the tech firm, and the pair married in 1994.

After starting their relationship, Melinda began working in the marketing department of Microsoft, the company that Bill Gates founded, and later became General Manager of Information Products in the 1990s.

Bill and Melina Gates, who have three children (Jennifer, Rory and Phoebe), married on January 1, 1994 in Hawaii and have lived at their famous Xanadu 2.0 mansion overlooking Lake Washington in Medina.

Melinda Gates left Microsoft in 1996 to dedicate herself to her family.

Their foundation is among the world’s richest, having provided more than $54 billion in grants over two decades in areas including malaria and infectious disease control, agricultural research, basic health care and sanitation, in various parts of the world. It has an endowment of more than $46 billion.

In recent years, Bill Gates has largely distanced himself from Microsoft and the tech industry, instead speaking about poverty and health initiatives, and the coronavirus pandemic.

Last year the foundation pledged some $250 million to help fight the pandemic, with some of the funds channeled to the distribution of life-saving doses of Covid-19 vaccines to parts of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Gates, who had been warning as early as 2015 about the potential dangers of a global pandemic, became the target of conspiracy theorists who claimed he knew in advance about Covid-19.

The split comes following the high-profile divorce of Bezos, whose ex-wife took the name MacKenzie Scott and promptly began giving away billions to various causes without setting up a conventional foundation.