Bill and Melinda Gates divorce after 27 years

In a message on the Twitter account of the Microsoft founder, the couple said they made the decision “after careful consideration and after a lot of work on our relationship.”

Bill Gates married Melinda in Hawaii in January 1994. The two met in 1987 in New York, after which Melinda soon started working in Microsoft’s marketing department. In 1996 Melinda left the company to focus on the family.

Since 2000 they have been working together on good causes with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “Over the past 27 years, we have raised three wonderful children and created a foundation that works all over the world to enable all people to lead healthy and productive lives,” they say.

The couple’s joint foundation is one of the most influential charities in the field of health and development. Even after the divorce, the two would continue to work together at the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation.

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

“We ask peace and privacy for our family as we begin to navigate this new life.”

According to Bloomberg News, Bill Gates has assets of about $ 146 billion (more than 121 billion euros). For many years he was the richest person in the world. It is currently the third richest. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is the richest, followed by Tesla boss Elon Musk.