Wait! What? A DREAM led Melinda French Gates to divorce Bill Gates?

Imagine waking up from a nap and deciding to separate from your husband of over two decades!


Well, Melinda French Gates did exactly that.


The American philanthropist and the former wife of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates recently shared how a dream led her to make the decision to divorce her husband of over two and a half decades.


What happened?

In a new interview with entrepreneur Jamie Kern Lima, Melinda French Gates opened up about the dream that helped her find the clarity and courage to walk away from the billionaire Microsoft co-founder. The ex-wife of Bill Gates revealed that once she had that dream, she knew that she needed to end her marriage.

Talking about that dream Melinda shared, “I have a very rich dream life, and I have for a long time. Some dreams will take me years to understand, but if they’re recurring, I know I need to pay attention to them.”

She said, “This dream, as I say in the book, doesn’t really take Freud to figure it out,” adding that after “certain things came out publicly,” she had this dream that she was on a cliff.


What was the dream like?

Melinda shared, “My ex-husband Bill and the kids were also on the edge of the cliff, but my part of the cliff crumbled away. And I was dropping down into a pit, and they were still on the edge of this cliff together, and they were safe, so I wasn’t worried about my children.”


What happened then?

Melinda revealed, “I knew when I woke up, ‘Oh, this means I need to separate and do something else’.” The philanthropist explained how she understood that she needed “to figure this out.” Melinda also said that she knew that she was going to be “alone in figuring this out.”



French Gates eventually asked the Microsoft co-founder for a divorce, which she called “unbelievably painful” in a 2022 interview with Fortune magazine.

Their split was finalized in 2021, ending their 27 years of marriage.


Parting the ways:

The Gates divorce shocked the world when the couple decided to part ways in 2021, ending their 27 years of marriage, and although it’s been almost four years since the former couple parted ways, Bill has often reflected on his life with Melinda and opened up about the decision to divorce in his later interviews. In one such interview, the Microsoft founder revealed that his biggest regret was letting Melinda go, calling it “the mistake I most regret.”

The American businessman and philanthropist admitted the same in an interview with the UK’s Times in January, saying, “You would have to put that at the top of the list,” adding, “There are others, but none that matter. The divorce thing was miserable for me and Melinda for at least two years.”

Bill told the Sunday Times, “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.” He added, “When we got divorced, it was tough, and then she made the decision to leave the foundation—I was disappointed that she took the option to go off.”

However, Melinda is on an entirely different page while reflecting on this particular chapter of her life. Melinda rather responded to her billionaire ex-husband’s recent admission that their split was the biggest regret of his life, saying that their divorce was “necessary”.

Talking to The Times, Melinda said, “If you can’t live your values out inside your most intimate relationship, it was necessary.” She continued, “I don’t even quite know what to make of that statement, so I’m not going to comment on what he says. He’s got his own life. I have my life now. I am very happy.”


The end of a long marriage:

Bill and Melinda met at Microsoft in 1987, when he was the CEO at the time. They started dating, and their relationship grew, eventually leading to marriage in 1994.

Their relationship led to a long-term partnership, both personally and professionally, marked by the establishment of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2000, they founded a non-profit organization dedicated to combating global poverty and disease. They worked together on the foundation's mission and initiatives, often highlighting the importance of women's empowerment and health.

Although Bill has never spoken about what caused their divorce, he admitted in 2021 that he had an affair with an employee during their marriage. However, Melinda maintained that their divorce wasn’t down to “one specific thing”.

Melinda later told Gayle King on CBS Mornings in 2022 that her husband’s relationship with Epstein played a role in their divorce. She revealed that she met with Epstein ”exactly one time” in 2013 at his Manhattan home, and it “unsettled“ her. She explained, “There just came a point in time where there was enough there that I realised it wasn’t healthy and I couldn’t trust what we had.”

Bill addressed those comments at the time, telling CBS News he will “always be sorry for the pain that I caused Melinda and our family.”

Bill and Melinda share three children who are now adults: Jennifer, 28, Rory, 25, and Phoebe, 22, as well as two grandchildren.