Washington: Three months back they first announced their split following 27 years of marriage. Now Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates are officially divorced. The marriage’s dissolution was finalised by a judge Monday in King County, Washington. The court records also said that (Bill Gates and Melinda) neither party will receive ‘spousal support’ or change their names. The judge ordered Bill and Melinda to divide their property according to the terms of a separation contract, which remains confidential under the terms of the divorce.
Washington laws stipulate a 90-day waiting period between when a divorce is filed and finalised.
Since the split was revealed in May, more than $3 billion worth of shares held by Gates’s ‘Cascade Investment’ has been transferred to French Gates’s name. That’s a fraction of their $146 billion fortune at the time of the announcement, according to the ‘Bloomberg Billionaires Index’. However, it never will be possible to know how the ex-couple’s private assets are being shared. Gates, 65, is now worth more than $150 billion, according to the index.
While Washington is a community property state, which means anything accumulated during marriage is considered both partners’ equally, the separation contract can supersede that as long as both parties agree and the court deems it fair. In Monday’s filing, the judge termed the plan to split property ‘just and equitable’.
In the months following the announcement of separation, there’s been intense focus on the future of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Warren Buffett, the only other trustee aside from the pair, stepped down from the board in June, while the foundation announced it would add more members. Melinda, 56, meanwhile, might exit her role in two years if she and Gates cannot work together.
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The couple also committed an extra $15 billion to the organisation. That money will go to the foundation’s endowment, which stood at about $50 billion before the announcement and has given away about as much over the past two decades.
Melinda, who filed the divorce petition in May, signed the document July 30 from ‘Pivotal Ventures’. It is her investment and incubation firm focused on gender equality based in the US capital.
