Melinda French Gates discussed her and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates' divorce in a recent interview, describing it as "unbelievably painful" and saying she "had some reasons" she "couldn't stay" married to him.
Fortune, in an interview published online Monday, asked French Gates how she thought her divorce altered her worldview and the world's view of her.
FILE - In this July 1, 2021 file photo, Melinda Gates, Co-Chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation poses for photographers as she arrives for a meeting after a meeting on the sideline of the gender equality conference at the Elysee Palace in Pa ((AP Photo/Michel Euler, File) / AP Newsroom).
BILL AND MELINDA GATES ARE OFFICIALLY DIVORCED.
She and Gates have both remained co-chairs of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the charitable organization they created together in 2000, since their split
SQUAWK BOX -- Pictured: Warren Buffett, Bill and Melinda Gates, in an interview on May 5, 2015 (Photo by: Lacy O'Toole/CNBC/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Her experience during the divorce "reminded me that the foundation calls me to be my best," French Gates told Fortune, adding that her "main concern" was "trying to protect my kids through it."
BILL GATES' EX-WIFE, MELINDA FRENCH GATES, OPENS UP ABOUT THEIR DIVORCE: ‘I COULDN’T TRUST WHAT WE HAD'
In February, the Wall Street Journal reported French Gates was pivoting from donating a significant portion of her wealth to the Gates Foundation to instead distributing it among various groups.
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