Melinda French Gates Exits the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (2024)

Photo: GONZALO FUENTES/REUTERS

Three years after Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates ended their 27-year marriage, we finally know who got their foundation in the divorce. On Monday, French Gates announced on Twitter that she has resigned as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which she has been running with her billionaire ex-husband since 2000. Bill, the founder and chairman of Microsoft and former Jeffrey Epstein buddy, will stay on as the sole chair of the organization, according to a statement from the foundation’s CEO, Mark Suzman. In other words, Bill sadly seems to have come out on top.

“This is not a decision I came to lightly,” French Gates said in her statement on X. “I am immensely proud of the foundation that Bill and I built together and of the extraordinary work it is doing to address inequities around the world.”

French Gates made the decision “after considerable reflection, based on how she wants to spend the next chapter of her philanthropy,” Suzman added in his own statement, per CNN. “Melinda has new ideas about the role she wants to play in improving the lives of women and families in the U.S. and around the world. And, after a difficult few years watching women’s rights rolled back in the U.S. and around the world, she wants to use this next chapter to focus specifically on altering that trajectory.”

The important context here is that in July 2021, just after the former couple announced their divorce, Suzman reportedly said the foundation was working on a contingency plan to make sure its charity work and grant payments could weather the oncoming relationship storm. Initially, both Bill and Melinda intended to stay on and attempt to work together (i.e., tolerate each other) for the greater good of the foundation. “If after two years either decides they cannot continue to work together as co-chairs, French Gates will resign her position as co-chair and trustee,” Suzman said at the time. Although the exes made it three long years doing business under the same roof, it seems this little experiment has now come to an end.

Bill may have succeeded in getting his ex-wife out of the foundation, but French Gates might be the real winner in this scenario. As part of their divorce agreement, she reportedly received $12.5 billion for her own charitable work and no longer has her name publicly attached to her ex through their joint venture. Melinda will also no longer have to breathe the same air as the man who allegedly cheated on her, which I’m sure is a massive relief, if not cause for celebration on its own.

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