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Melinda Gates details how she told Bill Gates she wanted a divorce: ‘Started having panic attacks’
Melinda Gates discusses her difficult split from Bill Gates in her upcoming book, revealing nightmares leading to her decision to divorce
Melinda Gates is opening up on her “gruelling” split from Bill Gates. In her upcoming book, The Next Day, she detailed how she made up her mind to tell her ex-husband about wanting to live separately and, eventually, a divorce. The 60-year-old confessed that she “started having panic attacks” in the days that followed after the tough conversation she had with the Microsoft founder in 2020, according to People.
Melinda Gates on how she told Bill Gates about wanting to divorce him
In her book, Melinda writes that she had “difficult periods” with Bill before, but in 2019, she began having “nightmares” about a house collapsing around her. “Bill has publicly acknowledged that he wasn’t always faithful to me,” she goes on before highlighting a “deeply disturbing” article about her ex-husband's meetings with Jeffrey Epstein.
When her nightmares turned even more “dramatic,” she decided that it was time for her to “make a decision.” “And that I was going to have to make it by myself,” Melinda adds, per the outlet. She revealed that in February 2020, she invited Bill to a trip to New Mexico, where she initially wanted to spend some time alone. Upon reaching a rental home there, she made an eerie discovery.
Melinda realised that the property was available to them only because the couple who owned it parted ways. Despite her attempt to treat the trip “like any other vacation,” she ended up telling Bill that she wanted to live separately in their home with their youngest daughter, Phoebe Gates. “It was one of the scariest conversations I’d have had,” she writes in the book.
The philanthropist explained that while Bill was “sad and upset,” he was also “understanding and respectful.” After keeping a united front at public appearances back home in Seattle, Melinda wanted to end her 27-year marriage. She had a lengthy yet “tender” conversation with the 69-year-old billionaire about it.
Melinda further revealed that she “started having panic attacks” shortly after. But it was therapy that “made it possible for me to respond to the betrayals in my marriage without betraying myself in return,” the author further writes in her upcoming book, per the outlet.
