Bill and Melinda Gates file for divorce, end their 27-year-old marriage

Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, and his wife Melinda Gates filed for divorce on Monday, May 3, after 27 years of marriage. The billionaire benefactors who are co-founders of one of the world's largest private charitable foundations, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said they have come to an agreement on how to split their assets.

However, the couple said they would continue to work jointly at the foundation. In similar tweets, Bill and Melinda Gates said they had taken the decision to end their marriage of 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," the couple said in a statement.

"We ask for space and privacy for our family as we begin to navigate this new life."

Bill Gates was formerly the world's richest person and his fortune is estimated at well over $100 billion.

Also Read: Great to see India's leadership in innovation, vaccine making: Bill Gates

How the couple end up settling their estate and any impact on the foundation will be closely watched, especially after another high-profile Seattle-area billionaire couple recently ended their marriage.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Bezos finalised their divorce in 2019. MacKenzie Scott has since remarried and now focuses on her own philanthropy after receiving a 4% stake in Amazon, worth more than USD 36 billion.

Bill and Melinda Gates' story

The Gateses were married in 1994 in Hawaii. They met after she began working at Microsoft as a product manager in 1987.

In her 2019 memoir, "The Moment of Lift," Melinda Gates wrote about her childhood, life, and private struggles as the wife of a public icon and stay-at-home mom with three kids.

She won Bill Gates' heart after meeting at a work dinner, sharing a mutual love of puzzles and beating him at a math game.

Also Read: Coronavirus outbreak: Next four to six months could be worst of pandemic, warns Bill Gates

Bill and Melinda Gates foundation

The sprawling Seattle-based Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the most influential private foundation in the world, with an endowment worth nearly $50 billion. It has focused on global health and development and US education issues since incorporating in 2000.

As the public face of the foundation's Covid-19 grants and advocacy work, Bill Gates has come under fire for being a staunch supporter of intellectual property rights for vaccine makers. While the tech icon says protecting the shots' recipes will ensure incentives for research and development, critics claim that mentality hampers supply in favor of drug company profits.

Last year, Bill Gates said he was stepping down from Microsoft's board to focus on philanthropy.

He was Microsoft's CEO until 2000 and since then has gradually scaled back his involvement in the company he started with Paul Allen in 1975. He transitioned out of a day-to-day role in Microsoft in 2008 and served as chairman of the board until 2014.