BILL Gates and his wife of 27 years Melinda are going to get a divorce, he confirmed today - and she could get a multi-billionaire dollar settlement from the fourth richest man in the world.
The Microsoft co-founder, who is worth a whopping $130billion, posted the news to his official Twitter account on Monday in a brief statement attributed to the couple.
Gates said they decided to "end our marriage" after a "great deal of thought and a lot of work."
He noted that they had raised "three incredible children" and worked to help people all over the world.
"We continue to share a belief in that mission and will continue our work at the foundation, but we no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in this next phase of our lives," Gates wrote.
"We ask for space and privacy for our family as we begin to navigate this new life."
Gates tweaked his Twitter settings so only the people he mentioned in the tweet at 4.30pm ET could reply.
After 15 minutes, his statement had amassed 2,926 retweets, it was quoted 4,489 times, and was liked 10.2K times.
Tech mogul Gates was the richest man in the world until Bezos knocked him off his perch in 2017.
Last year, the 64-year-old became the world's second richest person – with a measly $123billion fortune.
Like Tesla CEO Elon Musk, some of Gates' biggest splurges have been on property, recently purchasing a oceanfront colossus near San Diego, California.
He also owns a string of luxury cars, however, including pricey Porsches but it's unclear how the Gates fortune will be split now that they're getting divorced.
Melinda was a high-powered Microsoft executive before meeting and marrying Bill,
Then she met and married her husband, Bill Gates, the cofounder of Microsoft, and became mom to Jennifer, Rory, and Phoebe.
She formalized the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000 and the couple has forked out $45 billion addressing major global issues, like gender equality and poverty.
Two years before Bill announced their bombshell divorce, he had listed the pros and cons of marriage on a whiteboard in Netflix’s three-episode series, “Inside Bill’s Brain."
After a year of dating following their 1987, Melinda described how they had reached a crossroads in their relationship and Bill had to make a decision.
"His whiteboard had the pros and the cons of getting married," his estranged wife said in the documentary. "His whiteboard had the pros and the cons of getting married.
Bill and Melinda Gates to DIVORCE and she could get a multi-billion settlement
BILL and Melinda Gates are getting divorced – and she could get a multi-billion dollar settlement from the fourth richest man in the world. The Microsoft co-founder, who is worth a whopping $…
www.thesun.co.uk