Melinda French Gates reveals ‘outside’ factors leading to divorce with tech billionaire Bill Gates

"When that voice would come - and it would come at different times because of things that had happened outside the marriage that I would later come to learn about - I kept pushing it away," she shared in an interview on the "How to Fail with Elizabeth Day" podcast on Wednesday, as reported by Daily Mail.

She shared that the pressure to sustain the marriage was overwhelming, not just for her own well-being but also for their three children and the shared mission at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which was renamed the Gates Foundation in January 2025.

"We had a foundation and that was big and I believed in that work. I still believe in the work of the foundation," she said.

For years, Melinda suppressed her instincts, overwhelmed by the duties of motherhood, their global commitments, and the legacy they had built together. However, over time, the burden of these unresolved feelings became impossible to dismiss, the 60-year-old billionaire philanthropist said. "At some point I had to turn towards it, and I just knew it and I knew it in my soul."

She added that it took her a long time to conclude that her marriage to Bill was beyond repair.

Bill Gates and ex-wife Melinda French Gates. Photo from Instagram

"I took marriage — and I still do — very, very seriously and it wasn’t just two of us involved, it was five of us," she said, referring to their children Jennifer, 29, Rory, 26, and Phoebe, 22.

Melinda spent time reflecting on why she was staying and what life would be like if she left, recognizing the emotional difficulty of ending a marriage that had once been founded on love. During the podcast, she encouraged others to trust their intuition, even if it leads them to make a "very painful" decision, as reported by Page Six.

Bill and Melinda first met in 1987 during a Microsoft sales meeting, where Melinda was a product manager and Bill was CEO. Their romance blossomed after Bill asked her out in a parking lot, leading to their marriage on New Year’s Day in 1994.

In 2021, the couple announced their divorce, a decision made after a period of secret separation, with both citing that they could no longer "grow together as a couple in this next phase of life," according to New York Post. In 2022, the tech mogul admitted he had "caused pain" to his family, addressing rumors of infidelity when asked by Today show anchor Savannah Guthrie.

During an April appearance on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," Melinda confirmed that the lack of honesty in the marriage ultimately led to her decision to leave, impacting their trust and intimacy.

Since their split, both have moved on to new relationships. Melinda is reportedly dating tech entrepreneur Philip Vaughn, while Bill, 69, confirmed his relationship with Paula Hurd, the widow of late Oracle co-CEO Mark Hurd.