Why Bill Gates, Melinda waited 27 years for divorce?

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— Bill Gates (@BillGates) May 3, 2021

But the couple did not elaborate on the reason for the divorce or explain why they waited so long for their separation.

Neither Bill nor Melinda Gates gave a reason for their separation, but a People's Magazine report said their children were the reason they had waited so long for a divorce to be announced.

The report quoted sources as saying that the reason for announcing the divorce at the moment is apparently that their youngest daughter Phoebe is now 18 years old.

Sources said that their youngest children graduated from high school and they had decided to stay together till then.

According to sources, the couple waited for their children to drop out of school, as many do.

On the other hand, the Wall Street Journal has highlighted one possible reason for the couple's divorce.

The main reason for the divorce is still unclear, but according to the Wall Street Journal, Melinda Gates has been meeting with lawyers for years about the divorce.

According to the report, Melinda Gates had been consulting with lawyers since at least 2019 and now a petition has been filed in the court.

She worked with lawyers for several companies to save the marriage, which she described in court as "irretrievably broken".

The American magazine report mentions Melinda Gates' concerns about her husband's relationship with Jeffrey Upston.

Jeffrey Upston was a billionaire who was accused of sexually assaulting dozens of women, including young girls, for many years, not only enslaving them but also sexually harassing his friends and guests.

The Daily Beast reported in a recent report that Bill Gates had been dating Jeffrey Upston since 2011 when he was convicted in 2008 of abusing underage girls.

The report states that Bill and Melinda Gates met Jeffrey Upston in New York in September 2013, and shortly thereafter, Melinda Gates expressed her dissatisfaction with the meeting in front of her friends.

According to people close to the couple, Melinda was not happy with her husband's relationship with Jeffrey Upston. Bill Gates told the Wall Street Journal in 2019 that he was not a friend of Jeffrey Upston.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the New York Times first reported in October 2019 that Bill Gates had met with Jeffrey Upston more than once, after which Melinda contacted her advisers dozens of times.

In a joint statement announcing the separation on Twitter, they said that after living together for many years, they are now realizing that they can no longer move forward as a married couple.

The two confirmed in tweets that although they have decided to end the marriage, they will run all their business and welfare projects together.

Remember that if she divorces her husband, she can become the second richest woman in the world.

In a divorce petition filed in Washington's King County High Court, Melinda Gates said her marriage to Bill Gates was "irretrievably broken", while the court ordered the couple to distribute $146 billion in assets.

According to the petition, the couple has asked the judge to deal out their assets under a separate contract.

The agreement usually occurs when a couple is separated but not divorced, the terms of the document have not yet been revealed.

The 50-50 split of assets is more likely because the divorce petition also revealed that the couple, who tied the knot in 1994, had not entered into a prenuptial agreement and according to Washington state laws, in case of divorce, the assets are distributed equally.

If that happens, Melinda French Gates (who recently added a French name to her social media profiles) will become the world's second-richest woman, ahead of 67-year-old Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, who owns is L'Oreal and possesses $83 billion.

Although Bill and Melinda Gates have said they will continue to head the foundation, some experts say their differing views after the divorce could have an impact on the organization.

Even before the divorce, Bill Gates began distributing assets.

Last week, the company that invested in Bill Gates transferred more than $2 billion worth of stock shares to Melinda in just a few days.