According to the newspaper, Melinda considered divorce for two years before officially asking for it.
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May
11, 2021
2 min read
Melinda Gates would have been considering divorce from Bill Gates for years before formally filing for it, The Wall Street Journal reported .
The newspaper report revealed that Melinda had been in talks with lawyers since 2019.
The two had been married for 27 years, but announced on May 3 that their marriage would end.
“After thinking a lot and working hard on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage,” said Bill Gates via Twitter . “Over the past 27 years, we have raised three amazing children and built a foundation that works around the world to enable all people to lead healthy and productive lives.”
The decision surprised the international community, but The Journal report indicates that this separation was already coming.
Neither Gates mentioned the reason for the split, but The Journal did mention that Melinda Gates was upset by her husband’s connection to the controversial Jeffrey Epstein. According to Business Insider , Bill Gates was able to meet in 2011 with Epstein, who by that time had already been accused of looking for an underage girl in 2008 to have sex.
Sources told The Daily Beast that at the time Melinda was “furious” about her husband’s relationship with Epstein and has sought the advice of attorneys ever since.