Earlier this week, we reported that Bill and Melinda Gates shocked the world when they announced that they are divorcing after 27 years of marriage. Now, sources close to the couple are coming forward to reveal new details about their split.
An insider told People Magazine that a “combo of things” led to their divorce, and that they decided to move forward with it now because their youngest child Phoebe is now an adult.
“It’s absolutely because their youngest child is graduating from high school, and the idea was that they stayed together through that,” the source said. “They limped through until their kids were out of school like a lot of people.”
Bill, 65, and Melinda, 56, are also parents to son Rory, 21, and daughter Jennifer, 25, who recently called her parents’ split “a challenging stretch of time for our whole family.” Court documents imply that Bill and Melinda already have a separation agreement in place, which the source said is likely part of a plan to keep things as civil and private as possible for the former couple. They even plan to still work together at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation moving forward.
“Nobody is going to want to invite more scrutiny because it’ll hurt their credibility,” the source said. “I don’t think they’re so angry that anybody wants to take each other down, like you sometimes see. [Melinda is] not incentivized for that.”
The source added that they still have a major goal in mind, which is to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
“They were really interested in trying to win a Nobel Prize,” the insider claimed. “So one thing that was part of this is, if it gets worse, then it ends that. It seems as if that was on the agenda, and that’s for both of them.”
Randy Kessler, a celebrity divorce lawyer, said this week that the Gateses and their lawyers have “done an exemplary job of resolving their issues privately and professionally” through the couple’s separation contract.
“Such a separation contract is an agreement between the parties on the resolution of issues which would otherwise be left to the court to determine,” Kessler said, going on to explain that these issues typically include division of property, support and child-related issues.
This comes days after Bill and Melinda announced that they are divorcing, as their marriage is “irretrievably broken.”
“After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage,” they said in a 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,” their statement concluded. “We ask for space and privacy for our family as we begin to navigate this new life.”
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