Bill and Melinda Gates finalized their divorce in August of 2021, but four years later, the split after 27 years of marriage remains one of celebrity news’s most shocking. “The divorce thing was miserable for me and Melinda for at least two years,” the billionaire philanthropist confessed to The Times of London for an expansive interview published on Sunday. “There is a certain wonderfulness to spending your entire adult life with one person because of the memories and depth of things you have done and having kids together.” The split was, he admitted, “the mistake I regret the most.”
But four years on, that didn’t stop either of the Gates’s from moving on. Here’s what to know about Melinda’s current love interest.
Why Did Bill & Melinda Gates Get Divorced?
Melinda and Bill’s split appears to have been at least partially informed by an affair Bill publicly confirmed, that happened two decades before their split. Still, she pushed back on any assumptions that had been the sole reason. “I certainly believe in forgiveness, so I thought we had worked through some of that,” she told Gayle King during a 2022 on-camera interview on CBS Mornings.
“It wasn’t one moment or one specific thing that happened,” Melinda explained. “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.”
A source opened up about the painful split to PEOPLE in a May 2021 report. “He could have treated Melinda better,” they said. “He’s not a saint, but there isn’t one thing that created the final split. It goes deeper than that. It’s many years of differing views of the world, the foundation, and of life in general, and those things piling up. They are older and each personally looked at life and asked, ‘Is there more out there than what I have?’”
Melinda divulged to Fortune Magazine in a 2021 interview that the COVID pandemic had helped her through the split. “I had some reasons I just couldn’t stay in that marriage anymore,” she said. “But the odd thing about COVID is that it gave me the privacy to do what I needed to do. It’s unbelievably painful, in innumerable ways, but I had the privacy to get through it.”
Does Melinda Gates Have a Boyfriend?
According to the New York Post, Melinda is currently dating former Microsoft computer programmer Philip Vaughn. She’s been seen out affectionately holding hands with the Seattle-based entrepreneur on multiple occasions. Per The Daily Mail, she was previously linked to Fox News anchor Jon Du Pre in 2022. The outlet says Philip founded a craft beer delivery service in 2013, and previously worked at Melinda’s ex-husband’s company for nine years, from 1999-2008.
Does Bill Gates Have a Girlfriend?
Per PEOPLE, Bill confirmed he’s dating Paula Hurd in February of 2023. The couple had previously stepped out together at the Laver Cup in September of 2022. Paula, a mother of two, was married to Mark Hurd, the former co-CEO of Oracle, for 30 years before his death in 2019.
