The writer is a novelist
Some divorces we see coming, like the Kim-Kanye one. Some we wouldn’t mind – like the Trumps, Clintons or Beckhams. And some we just cannot process. We read about it, but the words don’t register. As memes multiply and cliches explode around us, we grope myopically for our glasses, eh, er, what, who … Mr and Mrs Gates?
First we squint around for the Other Woman; there has to be one. Boys will be boys. And we get an ex! Ann Winblad with whom Bill spends annual vacations on the beach, gasp. Even as we frown at her age, 70, we find a foreign connection, Zhe Shelly Wang, a Chinese interpreter in her mid 30s. Ageist or racist, what should we be? While our heads swerve from one woman to the other, we wish Gates had been kind like Bezos and provided us with raunchy texts and pics. Jeff met us halfway. The affair photos and separation tweet reached us simultaneously, so that we could nod like Sherlock Holmes. Aha, we said lens in han
More Details Emerge On Why Bill And Melinda Gates Are Divorcing Now Kevin Mazur/Getty Images
By Caitlin Flynn/May 7, 2021 3:03 pm EDT
It came as a surprise to many when Bill and Melinda Gates announced their divorce on May 3, 2021 but a source says the split was a long time coming. As reported by People, a combo of things led to the couple s decision to divorce and the timing is tied to the 18th birthday of their youngest child. It s absolutely because their youngest child is graduating from high school, and the idea was that they stayed together through that, the source told People. They limped through until their kids were out of school like a lot of people.
May 14, 2021
In Bill Gates’ marriage, the tech honcho was allowed by his wife Melinda French to spend time with his ex-girlfriend, Ann Winblad thanks to a built-in arrangement with Melinda prior to the now-former pair exchanging nuptials in Hawaii in 1994. (Getty)
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Bill Gates’ marriage to his estranged wife Melinda Gates certainly featured many undulations on its way to their pending divorce after 27 years.
In fact, in the Gates’ relationship, the tech honcho was allowed by his wife to spend time with an ex-girlfriend thanks to a built-in arrangement Bill had with Melinda French prior to the now-former pair exchanging nuptials in Hawaii in 1994.
AS Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates and his wife of 27 years part ways, surprising aspects of their long marriage have emerged, including the fact he had an agreement allowing him to go on regular holidays with his ex-girlfriend - a revelation that sent social media into overdrive.
That’s friendly? The revelation sparked online discourse over whether or not it is a good idea for a relationship when one partner goes on holiday with an old flame as Bill, 65, seems to have done with his ex partner, software entrepreneur, Ann Winblad.
They went away a lot? According to a profile in Time magazine in 1997, it was a negotiated consideration ahead of Gates’ marriage to Melinda French that he and his ex Ann would be able to spend time together. Before the Gates nuptials in Hawaii in 1994, it was settled that he and his former love could jet off on an annual weekend getaway to pick each other’s brains.