Last week, we reported that Bill and Melinda Gates shocked the world when they announced that they are divorcing after 27 years of marriage. Now, it’s been revealed that in the wake of this divorce, Bill and Melinda’s three children will likely “only” get $10 million each.
Bill, 65, and Melinda, 56, have yet to reveal the details of their divorce, which means it’s not known how they will split their $130 billion fortune. However, they have each made statements in the past indicating that their three kids Jennifer Gates, 25, Rory Gates, 21, and Phoebe Gates, 18, won’t be inheriting nine-figure sums.
Bill was asked in a 2014 TED Talk what his plan was when it came to leaving money to his three kids.
“They won’t have anything like that,” Bill said at the time. “They need to have a sense that their own work is meaningful and important.”
He had made similar remarks three years before in 2011, when he was asked by Daily Mail about reports that he planned on leaving each child $10 million. While Bill would neither confirm nor deny this number, he did say that each child would be getting a “miniscule portion” of his wealth.
When Bill was asked about these same reports on Reddit, he replied, “I definitely think leaving kids massive amounts of money is not a favor to them.”
“Warren Buffett was part of an article in ‘Fortune’ talking about this in 1986 before I met him and it made me think about it and decide he was right,” Bill added. “Some people disagree with this but Melinda and I feel good about it.”
This comes one week after Bill and Melinda announced that they are divorcing, as their marriage is “irretrievably broken.”
“After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage,” they said in a statement. “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,” their statement concluded. “We ask for space and privacy for our family as we begin to navigate this new life.”
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