After being married for 27 years, the world’s most philanthropic couple, Bill Gates and Melinda Gates announced that they were heading towards a divorce. This news has hit the world of charity and put it in a bad space.
The Microsoft co-founder and his wife took to Twitter to announce their decision in two identical tweets. “We no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in the next phase of our lives. We ask for space and privacy for our family as we begin to navigate this new life,” shared the couple via their official handles. The couple heads the world’s largest charitable fund, Bill & Melinda Foundation, and said that even after the split, they will continue to work closely with the private trust.
The former world’s richest man’s wealth is estimated to be over $100 billion. How the assets will be distributed and how this split will have a profound effect on the foundation is news that the world will watch. Especially after another Seattle millionaire, Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos recently ended his marriage.
After the announcement went public, netizens started to google and tweet the obvious questions. ‘How much is each person taking away?’ was a question that most people googled. In fact, India’s top query on Google at the time of announcement was -- Microsoft share price.
As the prying continued, people also started googling for the foundation’s details and how it might get affected. The trust primarily focused on public health, education, and climate. Recently, it made huge contributions to support the development of coronavirus vaccines.