Bill Gates listed pros and cons of getting married on whiteboard and Melinda found relationship ‘incredibly hard’
BILL Gates listed the pros and cons of getting married on a whiteboard while Melinda found the relationship "incredibly hard".
On Monday the power couple, worth $124 billion, announced that he and Melinda would be divorcing after 27 years of marriage.
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, “."
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.
One day when Melinda walked into Bill's bedroom he had been making a list on a board.
"His whiteboard had the pros and the cons of getting married," his estranged wife said in the documentary, then laughing at the memory.
Melinda was a high-powered Microsoft executive before meeting and marrying Bill.
The couple eventually tied the knot in Lanai, Hawaii, when Gates was 38 and Melinda was 29, reported .
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.
In 2019, after celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary, Melinda told that their marriage had been "incredibly hard" sometimes.
“We’ve just gotten to a point in life where Bill and I can both laugh about more things," she said.
"And, believe me, I can remember some days that were so incredibly hard in our marriage where you thought, ‘Can I do this?’”
In the interview she recalled a time being angry with Bill because he was reading a Winston Churchill book instead of helping her get their three kids ready to go out.
She told the media outlet that Bill struggled to find a work-life balance.
Bill, who is worth a whopping $124billion, posted the news to his official Twitter account on Monday as the Gates empire and fortune now hang in the balance.
Gates said they decided to "end our marriage" after a "great deal of thought and a lot of work" - two years after the couple marked their 25th wedding anniversary and his wife admitted marital life was "really hard."
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," he concluded. Melinda tweeted an identical statement to her account.
Tech mogul Gates was the richest man in the world until Amazon's knocked him off his perch in 2017.
Last year, the 64-year-old became the world's second-richest person – with a measly $124billion fortune – as he stepped down from Microsoft’s board to focus on their charitable endeavors.
Although he's given $50 billion to charity since 1994, Gates is earning money at a faster rate than he's donated it, according to reports.
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Now, the bombshell divorce is calling the Gates fortune into question because a lot of it has not been given to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation headed by the couple.
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Like Tesla CEO , some of Gates' biggest splurges have been on the property, recently purchasing an 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.
