OPINION | Bill and Melinda Gates: love can die, and there is nothing to resurrect it! | CNN

In this screenshot, Melinda and Bill Gates speak during the "One World: Together At Home" presented by Global Citizen on April 18, 2020 to support frontline healthcare workers and efforts in the fight against covid- 19.

(Credit: Getty Images)

Editor's Note:

Mari Rodríguez Ichaso has been a contributor to Vanidades magazine for several decades.

She is a specialist in fashion, travel, gastronomy, art, architecture and entertainment, film producer and style columnist for CNN en Español.

The opinions expressed in this column are solely his own.

Read more opinion pieces at cnne.com/opinion.

(CNN Spanish) -

When I found out about the divorce of Bill and Melinda Gates, I couldn't believe it!

I do not know them in person and they are not my friends.

But for some reason in my mind I saw them as a 'monolith' of unity and strength.

He saw them as a sensible couple, divorce-proof or separation-proof.

The exception to the rule of modern marriages.

And it is not like that.

The public image of the Gates is that of a strong couple, super united by 27 years of marriage and 27 years of generosity and a desire to help the underprivileged.

They were almost like an international monument - donating millions and millions all over the world with a detachment that almost seemed 'supernatural'.

And now even she has said that her marriage is "irrevocably broken", as the divorce documents say, and I have been cold!

Is the marriage so broken that they can't share the same roof for another day?

Is there no possible way to continue living together?

• Bill and Melinda Gates end their marriage

And this news leads us to reflect on love and marriage.

Both things are so complex, fragile and complicated!

And in the digital age, of computers, speed and communication every day more "alone", depending more on an iPhone, a tablet or a computer - (using programs that Gates created!) - human relationships are made by the opposite more difficult to sustain.

We avoid talking on the phone and texting, we talk to each other on FaceTime or Zoom (especially now with the pandemic) and we socialize less.

And at family gatherings there are always multiple members looking at their iPhones instead of chatting or sharing!

The closeness of human relationships has suffered greatly with the digital age - and there is no doubt about it -.

These changes in our lifestyle make love even more complicated.

And marriage!

And emotions and feelings sometimes collide with new realities, which we did not expect to emerge.

Money or no money (as the song "The King" says!) Love in the 21st century is subject to deep stress.

Day after day.

And the 'winners' who manage to keep him alive and happy have to be mature people, very patient, who understand that this love is worth feeding, nurturing and caring for a lot.

And if we do not take care of it - or it was a love based on pure passion and little else, and the couple did not share other bonds - we will see it go breaking, disappearing and eventually dying and ending.

And when love dies and breaks into a thousand pieces, there is nothing that can fix it!

• Melinda Gates: Her Life in Data, Microsoft Startup, and Philanthropic Life

And perhaps this - as happened 2 years ago with another digital billionaire Jeff Bezos and his wife MacKenzie, after 25 years of marriage - is why Bill and Melinda Gates have decided to go their separate ways.

Nothing ties them to coexistence.

Nothing makes you happy together.

Not three young children.

Not 27 years together.

Not his philanthropic work.

Nothing.

Love is over.

And full stop!

This company wants to help the planet, one engine at a time 1:18

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