Melinda Gates opens up on divorce from Bill Gates after he discusses new girlfriend

Melinda French Gates has opened up about her “painful” divorce from Bill Gates weeks after the Microsoft founder spoke about his new relationship with Paula Hurd.

Melinda, 60, spoke about the split in an interview with Elle.

“Look, divorces are painful, and it’s not something I would wish on any family,” she said, adding, “When I got divorced, [I knew] I would be OK on my own. And I think that was the most important thing.”

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Both have since re-partnered – Bill, 69, with Paula Hurd and Melinda with entrepreneur Philip Vaughn.

Vaughn previously worked for Microsoft.

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Bill and Melinda Gates announced their shock split in May 2021 and finalised their divorce later that year. They had been married for 27 years.

The former couple are parents to three children, Jennifer, 28, Rory, 25, and Phoebe, 22.

They are also grandparents. Jennifer has welcomed two daughters – Leila, 23 months, and Mia, three months – with husband Nayel Nassar.

Melinda has previously spoken about her divorce.

In 2024 she sat down with Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King as part of her series Moments That Make Us

She admitted she “prayed for grace” ahead of speaking about her divorce and leaned heavily on her friends.

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“I prayed for grace, Gayle, before that interview, grace to say the right things and not the wrong things. The grace to stand in my truth, but also not do complete damage,” she said.

During another part of the chat this week, she said: “I would not have gotten through my divorce without my three closest friends. There’s no chance.”

“They had seen enough over the years and they knew some problems along the way… they had seen me sad or…. you actually need a friend who will tell you the truth even when you don’t want to hear it,” she said.

During her previous chat with CBS Mornings, Melinda said her trust was “broken” during her marriage. Bill had an affair with a Microsoft staffer in 2000, confirmed by his representative.

”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 realised it just wasn’t healthy, and I couldn’t trust what we had,” she said.

Bill and Melinda initially pledged to continue working together for the Gates Foundation which they had both founded.

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Melinda ultimately decided to resign. She explained on X it was “not not a decision I came to lightly”.

“I am immensely proud of the foundation that Bill and I built together and of the extraordinary work it is doing to address inequities around the world,” she added.

Since then, Melinda has gone from strength to strength.

She works out of an office in Kirkland, Washington and as one of the richest women in the world, continues her philanthropic work with a focus on creating a better world for younger generations of women and girls.

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She is reportedly worth US$30.2 billion ($47 billion) and heads up her own organisation called Pivotal Ventures.

In 2024 Melinda announced she would grant $US250 million (approx. $372 million) to support women’s health around the world through an open call for nonprofits to apply for funding.

Haven Ley, chief strategy officer at French Gates’ organisation Pivotal Ventures, said the grant competition was a “curtain raiser” to a likely new focus on funding women’s health globally.

“By focusing on women’s health, she’s expanded her definition of women’s power to include a precondition that women must have their health to be powerful,” Ley said.

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