In this February 2019 photo, Bill and Melinda French Gates pose together in Kirkland. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)

In this February 2019 photo, Bill and Melinda French Gates pose together in Kirkland. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)

Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates finalize their divorce

The two have said they will continue to work together as co-chairs of their foundation.

  • By Wire Service
  • Tuesday, August 3, 2021 10:46am
  • Northwest

Associated Press

SEATTLE — The divorce of Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates has been finalized.

The Microsoft co-founder and his wife announced in May they were ending their 27-year marriage and on Monday a King County Superior Court judge signed the dissolution decree. The New York Times reports the court documents didn’t detail how they would divide their assets.

Bill Gates was formerly the world’s richest person and his fortune is estimated at about $150 billion.

They met after she began working at Microsoft as a product manager in 1987. The two were married in 1994 in Hawaii.

The Seattle-based Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the most influential private foundation in the world, with an endowment worth about $50 billion. It has focused on global health and development and U.S. education issues since incorporating in 2000.

The two have said they will continue to work together as co-chairs of their foundation. However, if after two years Gates and French Gates decide they cannot continue in their roles, French Gates will resign her positions as co-chair and trustee, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced earlier this month.

If French Gates resigns, Gates would essentially buy her out of the foundation, one of the world’s largest private charitable organizations, and she would receive resources from him to do her own philanthropic work. The resources received would be separate from the foundation’s endowment, according to foundation.

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