Melinda French Gates says marriage to Bill Gates ‘just wasn’t healthy’ before divorce
Melinda French Gates is offering her perspective about the end of her marriage to billionaire Bill Gates in a sit-down interview with CBS News’ Gayle King this week.
French Gates, 57, is excited for her future after divorcing the Microsoft mogul, according to a preview clip from the interview published Wednesday. The former couple announced their divorce in May, with French Gates saying the marriage was “irretrievably broken” in her court filing.
In the interview, set to air Thursday, French Gates described grieving her marriage after Gates was found to have had an affair with a Microsoft staffer in 2019.
“I certainly believe in forgiveness, so I thought we had worked through some of that,” she told King. “It wasn’t one moment or one specific thing that happened. There just came a point in time where there was enough there that I realized it just wasn’t healthy, and I couldn’t trust what we had.”
The full interview is set to air Thursday on CBS Mornings.
Though French Gates said there had been a lot of tears and some anger recently, she is “really excited” about her future.
“And at the end of the day though, I started on this journey of healing, and I feel like I’m starting to get to the other side,” she said. “And I do feel like I’m turning a page in the chapter now.”
The divorce was finalized in August without spousal support, which French Gates said was not necessary in her original filing. Decisions regarding division of property were not included in the dissolution decree.
Both French Gates and her former husband are operating as co-chairs of the Gates Foundation, the philanthropic and research nonprofit founded by the two, following the divorce. If after two years they decide they cannot work together, French Gates will resign her positions as co-chair and trustee in a buyout from Gates.
