Yahoo Finance Melinda French Gates opens up on how she ‘couldn’t trust’ her marriage
Melinda French Gates has spoken openly about her high-profile divorce from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.
In an interview with CBS Mornings’ anchor Gayle King, French revealed the divorce, after 27 years of marriage, was difficult.
In a preview clip the billionaire revealed the divorce came after reaching a point in her marriage where she “couldn't trust” what they had together.
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“I certainly believe in forgiveness, so I thought we had worked through some of that,” she said in response to a question on Gates’ admitted infidelity.
“It wasn’t one moment or one specific thing that happened. There just came a point in time where there was enough there that I realised it just wasn’t healthy and I couldn’t trust what we had.”
French also revealed she “had a lot of tears for many days” and “thinking: ‘How can this be? How can I get up? How am I gonna move forward?’”
“You’re grieving a loss of something you thought you had and thought you had for your lifetime. I mean, this is painful stuff,” she said.
“At the end of the day though, I started on this journey of healing and I feel like I’m starting to get to the other side.”
High-profile divorce
The couple announced the decision to divorce in a joint statement to Twitter in May 2021.
“After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage,” the pair said in the joint statement.
“Over the last 27 years, we have raised three incredible children and built a foundation that works all over the world to enable all people to lead healthy, productive lives.
“We continue to share a belief in that mission and will continue our work together at the foundation, but we no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in this next phase of our lives.
Following this, the decision was made for French to depart the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation in two years if she and her ex-partner were unable to work together, the foundation revealed.
The couple set up the charitable foundation in 2000, with a goal of helping people lead healthy, productive lives - in particular in developing countries.
It has committed US$55 billion (AU$74 billion) to the cause since its creation.
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