Melinda French Gates stepped down from her role as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation earlier this year.
She continues her work in philanthropy through her own organization, Pivotal Ventures, focusing on issues like gender equality and economic mobility.
Yes, Melinda French Gates discussed her divorce from Bill Gates in a podcast with Jay Shetty, describing it as “the hardest thing” she had to go through.
She highlighted issues of trust as a significant factor that led to their separation. Despite their personal challenges, both have continued their philanthropic work separately. She said,
“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 counselling what you had doesn’t actually exist.
And that for me, I couldn’t go forward. 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.”
In the podcast, Melinda French Gates did share her feelings of insecurity and expressed surprise that she would face such challenges.
She reflected on her personal struggles and the emotional impact of the divorce, underscoring the difficulty of navigating such a major life change. She said,
“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.”
Melinda French Gates mentioned that she was concerned about the news of her divorce becoming public before all the formalities were finalized.
This fear added to the emotional and logistical challenges she faced during the separation process. She noted,
“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.”
In an interview, she stated,
“It gave us the privacy to do what needed to be done in private. You know, I separated first before I made the full decision about a divorce.
And to be able to do that in private while I’m still trying to take care of the kids, while still making certain decisions about how you’re going to disentangle your life – thank God.”
