Bill and Melinda Gates, who will keep their last name, are already divorced

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda for 27 years are now officially divorced, according to the agreement approved by the Superior Court of King County in Seattle (USA) to which they have had access local media.

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The Gates announced in early May that they were divorcing, after almost three decades of relationship in which they founded one of the most important charities in the world, whose activity they have guaranteed will continue despite the breakup. "We believe that we cannot grow more as a couple in this new phase of our lives," they said just now three months ago. Bill and Melinda have three children, all of them now of legal age, Jennifer, 25 (of whom the most is known, an Amazon and a medical student); Rory, 22; and Phoebe, 19.

The day after the announcement of the separation, the US media revealed the content of the documents of the divorce petition, presented by Melinda, in which she assured that the marriage was "irretrievably broken", that spousal support was not necessary, and that the pact of separation would determine the division of their properties. As reported by

magazine

, there will indeed be no spousal support from Bill towards Melinda.

For now, the terms of the divorce are unknown, and they will have to decide how an estate estimated at about 110,000 million euros is distributed.

Gates is still considered the fourth richest man in the world, although we will have to wait until the details of the separation are known (if they are known) to see if any piece of his fortune has passed into the hands of his already ex-wife .

In addition, Melinda has decided to keep her married name, although in second place after her maiden name, so from now on she will be known as Melinda French Gates.

According to the newspaper

, one of the issues that caused the break would have been the relationship between Bill and the late disgraced tycoon Jeffrey Epstein, who committed suicide in prison in 2019. The newspaper claimed a few months ago that Gates and Epstein saw each other on several occasions and that even the technological entrepreneur stayed on occasion until late at night in Epstein's New York mansion, who was arrested after being accused of sexually abusing dozens of teenagers in his various Manhattan mansions and Palm Beach (Florida) and its island of the Virgin Islands.

For their part, spokesmen for the billionaire have always maintained that in those meetings the two men discussed philanthropic issues and that Gates "regrets each and every one of his encounters [with Epstein] and acknowledges that carrying them out was an error of judgment." In addition, the

noted that, as early as 2013, Melinda even warned her husband that these encounters with Epstein made her feel uncomfortable, but that despite this both Gates and some employees of his foundation continued in contact with Epstein, who also had more or less close relationships with Donald Trump, Woody Allen, Naomi Campbell, and even scientist Stephen Hawking.

In addition, as revealed by the same media, the company even investigated an alleged love affair between Gates and a Microsoft employee, which would have taken place in 2000. “It had the help of a law firm to carry out a thorough investigation. Throughout the investigation, Microsoft provided broad support to the employee who gave the notice, "explained the newspaper last May.