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Melinda French Gates on divorce from Bill Gates: 'There wasn't enough trust'
Melinda French Gates reflects on divorce from Bill Gates, calling it the 'hardest thing' ever and discussing challenges and beauty she found in the aftermath.
US philanthropist Melinda French Gates talked about her divorce from billionaire Bill Gates calling it the "hardest thing" ever. The couple parted ways in May 2021 after 27 years of marriage. In a podcast, Melinda French Gates said, “That was the hardest thing I had ever been through in my life. I had thought I was going to be married for life. I thought I'd be married for 50-plus years. So all of a sudden, you see that even despite very much work and counseling what you had doesn't actually exist. And that for me, I couldn't go forward.”
Read more: Melinda French Gates on leaving foundation she began with Bill Gates: ‘I received this advice’
She added, “There wasn't enough trust any longer. So it wasn't something I wished for I certainly didn't think I would be in my late 50s and be divorced.”
Melinda Gates exited the Gates Foundation with $12.5 billion for her own charity work that will focus on causes related to women and families.
Asserting that she didn't have a problem getting divorced, she said, "I didn't know that was going to be me. And it was incredibly challenging. I've never cried so much in my whole life. And I prayed a lot for grace...for grace for myself for grace for my children for grace for the situation that we would somehow get through this as a family behind the scenes."
Read more: Melinda French Gates on ‘horrible’ divorce with Bill Gates: 'It's just painful'
She also said that she prayed to God that separation wouldn't be public before they were finished "because I knew that would be a whole other thing and I think sometimes the only way I got through was because I do have faith. And thank God I had close friends who I could talk to on the hardest days and a good therapist but it is not something I would wish on any family. It is a very very difficult thing to go through because you're pulling apart something that has been tightly woven together and that you believed in."
Read more: Melinda French Gates says this is the best advice she got: ‘We need each other…’
Talking about her life after the divorce, she said, “And I will say though, on the other side, there can be a lot of beauty. Once you get through the rough patches and things finally kind of calm down for the whole family and everybody on the other side, there can be a lot of beauty. So I never thought I'd be in my late 50s I'm about to turn 60 and be single again. who expects that...but I didn't. But hey it's pretty great too.”
