Where Melinda French Gates spends her billions

Insider

From tech to philanthropy Melinda Gates is now dipping her toes into politics. Here’s how she’s moved on from her past marriage with Bill Gates and is heading a philanthropic organization seeking to increase women’s power.

Transcript

00:00Melinda French-Gates is different than your average wealthy divorcee.

00:05Obviously, she's worth billions at this point, post-divorce,

00:09but she's also one of the most influential women in the country right now.

00:12She works alongside Michelle Obama, McKenzie Scott, and other women in power

00:17who are really trying to give back to communities who deserve a little bit more.

00:21I'm Jordan Hart. I'm a tech reporter here at Business Insider,

00:24and today we're going to be spilling the tea on Melinda French-Gates.

00:28French-Gates found her love for computer science all the way back in Catholic school

00:32when they brought in Apple computers for the students to try,

00:35and she was quickly fascinated by the coding and, like, the logical puzzle that it all presented to her.

00:41French-Gates would then go on to get her bachelor's and her master's from Duke University.

00:45Microsoft recruited French-Gates in 1987, and shortly after that,

00:50she met Bill Gates for the first time at a company dinner.

00:53He'd asked her out, like, two weeks in advance, and she said no.

00:56He may not have been spontaneous enough for her,

00:59so he asked her out for that night, and that time she said yes.

01:03So the couple dated for, like, seven years, and they kept a pretty low profile at Microsoft.

01:08The couple were married in 1994 on a golf course in Hawaii

01:11in a wedding that reportedly cost about a million dollars.

01:14That's probably because Gates booked all of the hotel rooms and all of the helicopters during their wedding

01:19so they could keep it as private as possible and avoid anyone flying over trying to snap photos of the wedding.

01:25French-Gates eventually left Microsoft to focus on raising their children.

01:28The couple shared three kids in total, two daughters and one son.

01:32And Bill Gates is hailed as this, like, tech godfather,

01:35but he and French-Gates ultimately decided to not let their kids have phones until they were 14 years old.

01:40And that's not the only thing that's a little bit different about their parenting style.

01:43They've also spent $37 million on properties so their daughter Jennifer could practice show jumping

01:49and eventually become a nationally ranked equestrian.

01:52So when you're a billionaire, you definitely have some millions to spare.

01:55So they weren't spending it all on lavish properties for their kids to practice all of their interests.

02:00They were also trying to figure out how they could give back.

02:03During a trip to Africa in 1993, the couple witnessed poverty and extreme disparity

02:08between the healthcare there and the healthcare that they're used to seeing in the U.S.

02:12When we were engaged, Bill and I talked about the fact that this wealth would go back to society.

02:17And that's how the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation began.

02:20It's gone on to become one of the biggest philanthropic organizations in the U.S.

02:23and richer than even some countries.

02:26The couple got divorced in 2021.

02:28So there are a few factors that could have contributed to this divorce.

02:30French-Gates has said in the past that she did not like that Gates had a relationship

02:34with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

02:38She said she advised him to break it off.

02:40And then there's also the fact of an affair with a Microsoft employee, which Gates has publicly acknowledged.

02:46Even though their breakup sounds a little messy,

02:48they kept a really good professional relationship, it seems,

02:50and they were able to still get work done at the foundation.

02:53In the years since her divorce, French-Gates says she's dating again.

02:56No specifics.

02:58She's moved out of the $100 million-plus compound, Xanadu 2.0,

03:03and into her own smaller property that she said she loves.

03:07She's left the Gates Foundation earlier this year.

03:09Since leaving the foundation, French-Gates is charting her own course in philanthropy now at Pivotal Ventures.

03:14She's focused on getting women in power, helping them achieve equality, and reproductive rights.

03:20If you lift up women, you lift up everybody else.

03:23And French-Gates is accomplishing that by putting money towards contraceptives for women

03:27and donating to candidates who champion abortion rights like Kamala Harris.

03:31French-Gates has come a long way from being a product manager at Microsoft,

03:35and her story may sound a little bit similar to another tech founder's ex-wife,

03:38Mackenzie Scott, ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

03:42She got billions in their divorce, and she pledged to give away billions as a result.

03:48There's a really palpable string between the two.

03:51They can make decisions based on what they want to do

03:54and support causes that truly mean something to them

03:57instead of kind of having to conform to a role that they feel like maybe they were placed in

04:03as a result of being a wife of a high-powered billionaire tech exec.

04:13You're right. You're right.

04:15You're right. You're right.

04:17You're right.

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