Bill and Melinda Gates are getting divorced. This news trended on Twitter today. Ordinarily, we would not be quoting divorce news and stick to uplifting health quotes. However, we have chosen this quote as Bill and Melinda Gates through their foundation, are playing a pivotal role in global health. Also, the couple are handling this global news event in a mature and respectful manner.
What Bill and Melinda Gates told the world using Twitter:
“After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage.
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.βΒ
According to BBC News, the billionaire couple have three children and jointly run the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The organisation has spent billions fighting causes such as infectious diseases and encouraging vaccinations in children.
The Gates – along with investor Warren Buffett – are behind the Giving Pledge, which calls on billionaires to commit to giving away the majority of their wealth to good causes.
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
The couple’s contribution to global health is unrivalled. So many will be wondering what the long term implications of the divorce will be. However in the meantime the couple have confirmed they will continue working together.
The Microsoft co-founder turned philanthropist and his wife have built up a combined $124bn (Β£89bn) fortune, making them among the five richest couples in the world.
Statement on Twitter
The couple, who jointly run the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a huge funder of global health and disease prevention initiatives, including the fight against coronavirus, said they would continue to run the foundation together.
The world has changed
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has come a long way in 20 years.
According to the foundation’s annual report,Β they started the foundation 20 years ago, when the world was, in many ways, very different from the one we live in now.
To quote their foundation work:
“It was before 9/11, before the Great Recession, and before the rise of social media.Then, as now, there was no shortage of worthy causes, and there was a good argument to be made for investing in many of them.
Weβd known for a while that we wanted to give away the majority of our wealth from Microsoft and use it to make peopleβs lives better. The challenge, of course, was how to do that in a meaningful and high-impact way. As we were thinking about what our philanthropic priorities would be, we spent a lot of time meeting with experts and poring over reports. What we learned convinced us that the world should be doing more to address the needs of its poorest people. At the core of our foundationβs work is the idea that every person deserves the chance to live a healthy and productive life. Twenty years later, despite how much things have changed, that is still our most important driving principle.”
βAt the core of our foundationβs work is the idea that every person deserves the chance to live a healthy and productive life.β
I am sure you will agree, they are processing this life changing decision respectfully as one possible can, in front of the world. They deserve the privacy they have requested. Marriages end. And sometimes that’s their happy ending.
