The Separate Worlds of Bill and Melinda Gates
The New York Times
They built an empire that was essential in the pandemic. Now, their impending divorce makes personal a shift that confidants say was well underway in their philanthropic roles.
Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates were stuck at home. When the pandemic hit last March, the couple retreated to their 66,000-square-foot home on the shore of Lake Washington, venturing out infrequently to minimize their potential exposure to the virus. From their home offices they continued running the influential foundation that bears their name, video chatting with world leaders to secure financial commitments for vaccine distribution, and talking about the health of American democracy with their youngest daughter, who was finishing her senior year of high school remotely. For a couple who had spent much of the past three decades traveling the world, so much time together at home was an abrupt change of pace. “Working from home — that was a piece that I think we hadn’t really individually prepared for quite as much,” Ms. French Gates told The New York Times in October.
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