Melinda Gates gets candid about her divorce from Bill Gates: ‘You can’t have intimacy without trust’

Philanthropist Melinda Gates has revealed that trust issues led her to end her 27-year marriage to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. Appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Monday (April 15), Melinda reflected on the painful but necessary decision to leave the tech billionaire.

“I learned, you know, to have a trusted relationship — which is what I wanted in a marriage — both partners have to be honest with one another,” Melinda Gates said.

“And if you can’t, you can’t have intimacy and you can’t have trust. And so, in the end, I had to go,” Melinda further said.

Melinda is dating again

When host Stephen Colbert asked whether she was seeing someone new, Melinda smiled and confirmed, “I am,” blushing before adding, “It’s been pretty great. It’s been pretty great.”

She did not reveal the identity of her current partner.

The moment she asked for a divorce

In her new memoir, The Next Day, Melinda recounts, The New York Post reported, the moment she told Bill she wanted a divorce during a trip to New Mexico in 2020.

“It was one of the scariest conversations I’d had,” she wrote, describing her ex-husband’s reaction as “sad and upset” but also “understanding and respectful.”

“Grueling” negotiations with the world’s toughest negotiator

Melinda admitted that the divorce process itself was incredibly tough.

“Bill has a reputation for being one of the toughest negotiators in the world,” she wrote, as per the report.

The couple eventually reached a private settlement, and continued to work together on their philanthropic foundation.

The Gateses, who married in 1994, share three children: Jennifer, 28, Rory, 25, and Phoebe, 22.