Billionaire couple Bill and Melinda Gates announced they are splitting after 27 years of marriage on Monday, but Melinda Gates first began talks with divorce lawyers in 2019 according to divorce documents obtained by the Wall Street Journal, which the newspaper said coincided with Bill Gates' relationship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein coming under public scrutiny. Melinda Gates speaks onstage at Oprah's SuperSoul Conversations at PlayStation Theater on February ... [+] 05, 2019 in New York City. A divorce filing dated May 3 shows the Gates agreed to divide their more than $130 billion worth of assets via a separation contract, the Wall Street Journal reported. Because all three of the couple’s children are 18 or older, they will not need to hash out custody issues. One former employee of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation told the Wall Street Journal Melinda had been concerned about her husband’s relationship with Epstein as early as 2013, six years before he was arrested again on charges of sex trafficking girls as young as 14.

Source: Forbes May 09, 2021 18:45 UTC