The recent Bill and Melinda Gates split is touted by some analysts to be the world’s most expensive divorce, set to eclipse the world’s largest divorce settlement recorded in the Jeff Bezos- MacKenzie Scott split two years ago.
Recall that Bill and Melinda Gates announced that they are getting divorced, after 27 years of marriage. A joint statement issued by the estranged couple reads: ‘’ After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage.
“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.
“We ask for space and privacy for our family as we begin to navigate this new life,” the statement concluded.
Though details of the divorce settlement is yet to be made public as at the time of reporting this, analysts however tipped the split to eclipse the infamous Jeff-Mackenzie split which was estimated to be worth around $38 billion. The settlement made MacKenzie Scott the third wealthiest woman in the world.
Mr Gates is the fourth richest person in the world, and is estimated by Forbes to be worth $130.5 billion. He became the world’s youngest self-made billionaire when Microsoft went public in 1986.
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The couples own a private jet and a vast number of properties which include their main home in Washington and houses in California, Florida, Wyoming and Massachusetts. Their family home is a 66,000 square foot mansion purchased at $2 million and reconstructed at $63 million. It is now worth an estimated $125 million and features seven bedrooms, a reported 18 bathrooms, an art-deco cinema, a dining room that can seat 24, an indoor-outdoor pool with an underwater music system, an artificial stream stocked with salmon and trout and reportedly a beach with imported sand.
The couple collectively owned other assets scattered in various locations in the US. In 2000, they started the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, with lofty goals that include but not limited to the reduction of extreme poverty around the world. The couples are co-chairs and trustees of the foundation, which has more than $50 billion in assets.
It is pertinent to state that the assumption of the Bill and Melinda Gates divorce eclipsing that of Jeff and Mackenzie is conditioned on if there were pre-existing nuptial agreement to share assets on divorce.
