Divorce: why Bill and Melinda Gates excluded their children from the inheritance

Melinda french adopted her husband’s last name Bill Gates when they got married. A story that did not have an easy start. “She had several boyfriends, and I had Microsoft”, says prosaically the giant of the microcomputers of the mini-series that Netflix launched in 2019, Inside Bill Gates’ brain. “We said, ‘Hey, there’s nothing really serious between us, eh?’ But seven years later they got married and two later, Jennifer was born, the eldest of her three sons. Some young people for whom their mother got her maiden name back when she enrolled them in public school, in an attempt to make them as anonymous as possible. Partly he was successful, but now the Gates’ divorce has brought them to the forefront of media attention.

When i was born Jennifer, Melinda Gates, then general manager of multimedia products, on the left Microsoft devote himself to his family. And came Rory in 1999 and Phoebe in 2002. Since then, little has happened in the Gates’ family life.

The brothers were raised out of the spotlight in the impressive Manor that the family owns Medina, a city on Lake Washington across from Seattle. Known as Xanadú 2.0 by its billionaire owners, the mansion of 4500 square meters is known to be stocked with products from high technology, in addition to their 24 bathrooms, 6 kitchens and 2 tennis courts, among others luxury. It was there that Melinda Gates asked her husband to share the household and family chores. When her eldest daughter started attending school in the early 2000s, Bill made the hour-long commute twice a week. Small efforts that end up changing the rules of the game, according to Melinda Gates: Bill leading the children, the other moms went home and said to their husbands, “If Bill Gates takes his kids to school, you can do that too.”

The eldest, Jennifer, 25, became the spokesperson for her siblings and within hours of announcing her parents’ separation, she reached out to her. 415,000 subscribers from Instagram: “Thank you for understanding that we need privacy as we navigate the next steps in our lives.” Her siblings keep their accounts private.

Jennifer studied human biology at Stanford, before carrying out studies on Drug at school iMount Sinai cahn At New York. In between, he took a year off to devote himself to his passion, horseback riding. An accomplished Amazon, in her group of friends are Destry Spielberg (Steven’s daughter), Jessica Springsteen (Bruce’s daughter) and Eve Jobs (Steve’s daughter). A year ago, the young woman announced her engagement to the Egyptian rider Nayel Nassar, 30 years, a marriage postponed by the pandemic. Among the images of Jennifer on her social networks, there is no shortage of romantic snaps she shares with her boyfriend. Nassar, who grew up in Kuwait But he moved to California to study administration and economics also at the University of Stanford. The young man is a professional rider who has received first prize in the Western Sub-League of the Longines FEI World Cup, among other competitions, and combines riding with a own horse training and sales company you have in San Diego.

Of Rory Yes Phoebe, who are 21 and 18 years old respectively, only their faces are vaguely known, that we sometimes see in the photos posted by Melinda Gates on her Instagram account, along with some comments. In them it counts, for example, that Rory is a declared feminist.

Her father decided deprive them of a large part of their inheritance, something he revealed a long time ago. “I don’t think you’re doing someone a favor by giving them billions in inheritance,” Bill Gates said on the Reddit platform in 2015. “It’s not good to grow up without having to work. . ” This is why their billions have been turned over to The commitment to give, the program launched by the Gates and their friend Warren Buffett, in which the hyper-lucky one commits to donate to philanthropic works, during his lifetime, half of his estate.

In 2000, the couple founded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, dedicated to access to health care and education, and to the reduction of extreme poverty in the world. After announcing their divorce, the still couple guaranteed that they will continue to work together as the head of the charity. “We know that we have had a lot of luck professionally, and for our part we want to give opportunities in the best possible way and to as many people as possible”, they declared in 2005, after being chosen personalities of the year by the magazine Time.