This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Melinda French Gates opens up about the “betrayals” she faced during her marriage to Bill Gates in her new book, The Next Day.
It comes after Gates recently called his divorce from Melinda after 27 years “the mistake he most regrets.”
“Bill has publicly acknowledged that he wasn’t always faithful to me,” Melinda, 60, writes, according to an advanced copy of her book obtained by People.
In 2021, the 69-year-old billionaire Microsoft founder resigned from the board of his company after a former engineer claimed to have had a sexual relationship with him for years.
Though he did admit to being unfaithful to Melinda, Gates maintained his reasoning for stepping down wasn’t because of the investigation launched against him as a result of the employee’s claims.
Melinda and Gates, who share three children (Jennifer Gates Nassar, 28, Rory Gates, 25, and Phoebe Gates, 22), separated in 2020.
Speaking to The Times in January, Gates expressed his regret over the way the divorce was handled.
“There are others [mistakes], but none that matter. You would have to put that at the top of the list. The divorce thing was miserable for me and Melinda for at least two years,” he said.

He added: “Melinda and I still see each other — we have three kids and two grandchildren so there are family events. The kids are doing well. They have good values.
“There is a certain wonderfulness to spending your entire adult life with one person because of the memories and depth of things you have done and having kids together,” he continued. “When Melinda and I met, I was fairly successful but not ridiculously successful — that came during the time that we were together. So, she saw me through a lot.”
The former pair met back in 1987 when she started as a product manager at Microsoft. The two then dated before tying the knot in 1994 in Lanai, Hawaii.
In her book, Melinda refuses to reveal the reason for their 2021 divorce, arguing that Gates should be the one to do so.
Speaking to People in a new interview published on April 2, Melinda said one of the biggest lessons she learned from her divorce was to be true to herself.
Gates has since moved on romantically with Paula Hurd, the widow of Oracle CEO Mark Hurd, 62. As for Melinda, she’s been dating Philip Vaughn, a 48-year-old tech entrepreneur.
She also told People she’s focusing on the next chapter in her career and has plans to donate millions of dollars through her investment corporation, Pivotal Ventures.
“It takes courage forging a different life,” she said. “When you change paths, you realize, oh, it’s a big opening.”