Melina French Gates has shared details about her split from Bill Gates, her former spouse.
In an interview with Time that was published on June 18, French Gates talked openly about her decision to file for divorce in 2021, following 27 years of marriage. In an interview with the newspaper, she talked about her life at home in 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, when she and Gates were getting divorced.
When two of their three children—Jennifer, 28, Rory, 25, and Phoebe, 21—were living with their parents full-time, she expressed her gratitude for their private breakup.
“It gave us the privacy to do what needed to be done in private,” she said about going through the split during the pandemic. “You know, I separated first before I made the full decision about a divorce.
Did you read this?
And to be able to do that in private while I’m still trying to take care of the kids, while still making certain decisions about how you’re going to disentangle your life - thank God.”
The 59-year-old French Gates was also questioned about her concerns regarding how the divorce would impact her and her husband's private charity, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She replied by admitting that, in the end, her breakup was "more of a personal thing." However, she acknowledged that she was still thinking about her children and her organization at the time.
“I thought a lot about my three children,” she said. “But I certainly thought about the effect on the foundation. Those are the three biggest buckets: me, the kids, and the foundation. And I wanted to make sure that when we came through it to the other side - when I came through it on my side - all of those pieces were intact.”
Despite how challenging her divorce was, French Gates, who made her departure from the foundation public last month, also talked openly about how she is now in a good place.
“Getting a divorce is a horrible thing. It’s just painful. It’s awful when you realize you need one,” she said before correcting herself by clarifying that divorce is a “hard thing” instead of a “horrible thing.”
When asked how she felt now that the problematic aspects of her breakup were behind her, she said, "It has been wonderful." I'll stop there.
The philanthropist described how content she is in her own space and mentioned how many of her friends live nearby.
She announced last month that, after more than 20 years, she was leaving the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to focus on her philanthropic work supporting women and families.
In an interview with Time, she once discussed the reasons behind her decision to leave the foundation. "I was simply prepared to possess complete authority over the allocation of all the finances," she remarked. She also expressed her optimism that the foundation will endure because the CEO, Mark Suzman, and her ex-husband, the board, "believes in women's health."
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