Not a few people were taken aback when Microsoft co-founder, Bill Gates and wife, Melinda, broke the news recently that they’ll be ending their 27-year-old marriage.
The couple, in a statement, said “After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage. Over the last 27 years, we have raised three incredible children and built a foundation that works all over the world to enable all people to lead healthy, productive lives. We continue to share a belief in that mission and will continue our work together at the foundation, but we no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in this next phase of our lives. We ask for space and privacy for our family as we begin to navigate this new life. – Melinda Gates and Bill Gates.
Theirs is a story of a couple that started from the bottom. Bill and Melinda met 34 years ago at a Microsoft business dinner where Bill was CEO and Melinda general manager of information products. Bill led the company from its founding in 1975 to 2000 and became the world’s richest man in 1995, a year after their marriage. The two have a combined net worth of about $130 billion.
Their divorce reports say, is coming in to become the most expensive in the world, estimated at about US$127 billion.
Ordinarily, one would think that in the world of the super rich, everything is perfect, including their marriages. After all, money, they say, answers all.
Some of the world’s richest people have, however, proven that there are certain things money does not answer to. Among many other things, it cannot buy the glue that holds marriages together.
Currently the 4th richest man in the world, Gates is not the first billionaire to end his marriage in shocking circumstances. Like the others before him money wasn’t enough.
In 2019, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife, MacKenzie, ended their 25 year marriage. Hours later, it was revealed Bezos was in a relationship with Sánchez, a news anchor and helicopter pilot who, along with her husband, had been friends with the Bezos. MacKenzie would later marry Dan Jewett, a science teacher at a Seattle private school.
Money does not guarantee fidelity or loyalty to one’s spouse.
Similarly, the financial worth of the world’s second richest man, Elon Musk, did not guarantee him smooth relationships. He has faced his fair share, having been through two divorces, first with his wife of eight years, Justine Wilson and later to British actress, Talulah Riley.
One marked similarity with the divorces was that they cost huge sums.
There are even more divorces of the rich and famous that cost huge sums. The divorce between media mogul, Rupert Murdoch and Anna Maria Mann, a Scottish journalist and novelist in 1999 cost US$1.7 billion from settlement and US$110 million in cash awarded to Mann. Professional golfer, Tiger Wood’s divorce from Elin Nordegren after 6 years of marriage was estimated at US$710 million. The divorce of basketball player Michael Jordan from Juanita Vanoy in 2006 cost US$168 million. With the amount Vanoy received, it was the largest celebrity divorce settlement on public record at that time.
In Asia, the divorce of South Korean stars Song Joong-ki and Song Hye-kyo (also known as the SongSong couple) was one of the most high profile. They both own but didn’t split their assets valued at US$86.5 million after the divorce. Actor Harrison Ford and late screenwriter Melissa Mathison’s divorce in 2004 cost an estimated US$118 million.
Dubbed the “divorce of the century” by the media, the ongoing divorce of Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group and Roh Soh-yeong, an art museum director, costs around US$1.6 billion.
What is it with the rich of the world that makes it difficult for them to sustain their marriages? What could be the pressures that make it difficult for them to keep the faith even after so many years?
In the case of Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, he was not even linked with any woman for so many years until recently when some American ladies who claimed to be romantically involved with him, released details of their alleged relationship on social media. One of them alleged he broke her heart in a thousand pieces!
Though now divorced, Bill and Melinda could pass as a perfect couple with the way they led their lives individually and as a family. On their 25th anniversary, just two years ago, they were all lovey-dovey as they cheered to the next 25. They were involved in charitable causes and ploughed much of their estimated $124bn fortune into the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which seeks to enhance healthcare and reduce poverty around the world. Working with Warren Buffett, they also promoted the Giving Pledge as a way for wealthy business people to donate more of their wealth during their lifetimes.
All of this proved ineffective in ensuring that they continue to grow together as a couple.
Even though the duo have said said the fate of their marriage would not affect the work of their foundation, the world’s largest private charitable organisation, conspiracy theorists are already saying the divorce could be due to differences in the interests of the now estranged couple in their Seattle-based foundation. While Bill is said to be interested in things such as new health technology including messenger RNA vaccines, or projects, Melinda is interested in issues such as gender equality.
More than anything else, the billionaire divorces further reinforce the theory that money has never been and has countless times proven not to be a good prerequisite for happy and successful marriages. Money can buy you things that make you happy, can buy you a bed, but not sleep, can buy you a house but not a home, can take you on holidays to exotic destinations, can buy you a wedding, but not a marriage. If money could buy health, billionaires won’t die from illnesses.
Money answers a lot but there is a lot more it cannot do.
The way I see it, what money cannot do exists. (If you know, you know).
