Breaking up is hard to do
Joe Crawford
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The world was in shock last week when it was announced that multi-billionaires Bill and Melinda Gates have decided to divorce.
I haven’t been this upset since multi-millionaires Prince Harry and Meghan Markle got kicked out of the royal family and were told to go fend for themselves. The last I heard they were on the mean streets of an exclusive upscale, gated community in Montecito, California. Is there no mercy in the world?
No one is exactly sure why the Gates are splitting up, but it might be because Bill is getting too old for Melinda. She had been complaining that he had lost his hard drive for business and was constantly using up all his memory. Bill also might have gotten tired of the child processes running in the background and decided he needed a reboot.
REUTERS/Kamil Zihnioglu/Pool
When it comes to divorces among wealthy couples, privacy and asset complexity are key challenges.
Separation agreements and private mediation are ways to keep information out of the public eye.
Six divorce lawyers and experts explain how such couples can keep disputes out of the courts.
Bill and Melinda Gates announcement on Monday that they were separating shocked many.
And though the power couple s news came out of the blue, their divorce filing was likely the product of months of private negotiations in an effort to keep things under wraps, said Jennifer Brandt, the chair of Cozen O Connor s law firm, which has represented people with high net worth in divorces.
Divorces don’t get messier than among the super-rich
As Bill and Melinda Gates prepare to part, we look at the tricks and tactics that can come into play when one-percenters split
6 May 2021 • 5:00am
In California, divorcing couples cannot lay claim to assets such as holiday homes, as they must split equally
Lockdown has not been easy for billionaires, even Bill Gates. News that the fourth richest couple in the world – worth some $125 billion – are heading for a divorce must have been a champagne-popping moment for the US legal community; the more money at stake, the messier the split. The pair have hauled in top brass to manage proceedings: on Melinda’s side are Robert Cohen and Sherri Anderson – who have a host of A-list clients under their respective belts, including Ivana Trump, Uma Thurman and Jeff Bezos. Bill is leaning on Robert Olsen and Ted Billbe – who made MacKenzie Scott the world’s fourth-richest woman after her marriage to Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos,
The main Gates residence is a lakeside mansion in Medina, Washington, reportedly worth $164 million.
Bill and Melinda have three adult children, Jennifer, Rory and Phoebe.
There are now questions over how the divorce settlement could affect the couple s huge philanthropic efforts.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with an endowment of nearly $64 billion, donates about $6.4 billion annually to causes around the world.
Last year, it donated $1.2 billion to combat COVID-19 through the administering of vaccines.
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Queen Elizabeth II presents Bill Gates with an honorary knighthood in 2005, as his wife Melinda watches on.(Getty)
Bill and Melinda Gates, one of the world s wealthiest and most powerful couples, have announced their divorce.(Getty)