Melinda French Gates said she is resigning from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that she started alongside Bill Gates, her former husband and former world’s richest person.
Bill and Melinda Gates filed for divorce in 2021 after 27 years of marriage but had pledged to continue their philanthropic work together.
“This is not a decision I came to lightly,” she said in a statement issued on social media Monday. “I am immensely proud of the foundation that Bill and I built together and of the extraordinary work it is doing to address inequities around the world.”
Under the terms of the separation agreement with her former husband, Ms. Gates said she has “an additional $12.5 billion to commit to my work on behalf of women and families,” according to her post on social media.
The two said in 2021 that they had reached an agreement on how to divide their marital assets, but no details of that agreement were disclosed in the final divorce order filed in court.
The foundation is one of the most powerful and influential forces in global public health, having spent more than $50 billion over the past two decades to bring a business approach to combating poverty and disease. However, it has drawn controversy over its funding of certain types of medical work over the years, including vaccination campaigns.
“Looking ahead, I remain fully committed to the Foundation’s work across all our strategies, and to realizing the opportunities we have to continue improving the lives of millions around the world,” he added.
Mr. Gates’s statement added that his “foundation team is incredibly strong and deeply passionate about our work, and under the leadership of Mark Suzman, and a committed board of trustees, I am confident we will keep making substantial progress on our mission to create a world where every person can live a healthy, productive life.”
In announcements posted to their social media accounts in May 2021, the two said that they “no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in this next phase of our lives,” adding they decided to separate “after a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship.”
In a press release issued in July 2021, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman said the couple would continue leading the organization together on a two-year basis. But he stipulated that if the pair can’t work together, Melinda Gates will resign, effectively giving Bill Gates control of the charity.
“In such a case, Melinda would receive personal resources from Bill for her philanthropic work. These resources would be completely separate from the foundation’s endowment, which would not be affected,” he said at the time.
The couple, who met in 1987, launched the foundation in 2000, and it makes grants to communities and businesses worldwide. Some $39 billion has been donated to the foundation by fellow billionaire Warren Buffett over the years.
In 2022, months after their divorce, Ms. French Gates was critical of Mr. Gates regarding meetings with convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, something that may have factored into that decision.
“It was many things. But I did not like that he’d had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein,” she said in an interview with CBS News. “I made that clear to him.”
She also suggested in the interview that “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,” referring to allegations of extra-marital affairs.
Mr. Gates has said in a statement meeting with Mr. Epstein was a “substantial error in judgment“ and added he ”deeply“ regrets that ”mistake.“ Previously, he told the Times of London that he had ”several dinners” with Mr. Epstein in the early 2010s, saying that they were part of efforts to acquire donations to his foundation.
Ms. French Gates said Monday that she’s leaving the foundation on June 7 and will provide more information about her charity plans in the future.
