In perhaps the most unsurprising turn of events ever, the biggest story coming from the announcement that Bill and Melinda Gates intend to divorce is… the prenup. In fact, it’s the fact they don’t have one.
That’s right, after one of the world’s wealthiest couple released a statement stating they ‘no longer believe [they] can grow together as a couple’, the families £93bn wealth was all anyone could focus on. So much so, as Bill Gates name trends on Google this morning, ‘Bill Gates prenup’, ‘Bill gates net worth’ and ‘Melinda Gates net worth’ are all breakout search terms.
After the divorce petition was made public record, tabloids were quick to note that only the couples ‘separation contract’ was included as a relevant document on the petition – highlighting that the pair do not have a prenuptial agreement (which, since everyone is also Googling ‘prenuptial meaning’, typically lists all of the properties and depts each party owns before marriage and what each person’s rights will be to the others property or wealth after the marriage ends).
The lack of prenup mean the couple will now decide between themselves how to split their billions. Of course, the tabloid focus on this has become on how much ‘spousal support’ Melinda will receive – with many quick to point out she’s ‘not asking for any’.
It’s the classic sexist response, isn’t it? Assuming Melinda doesn’t have her own money, that she’s waiting in the wings for Bill to throw her a few quid because without him, she’d be penniless.
In actual fact, Melinda Gates was once responsible for the development of numerous Microsoft products including Publisher, Money, Works and Word. When she left to focus on her family, she became a member on various boards and began to focus on philanthropy, forming the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that the pair will continue to work on together despite the divorce. She also founded Pivotal Ventures, an independent organisation dedicated to implementing innovative solutions to problems affecting women and families in the US.
But the biggest irony of this entire narrative comes with the book she authored in 2019, The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World, which is all about the failure to acknowledge women's unpaid work.
She was making a point then that we should remember now that regardless of who makes the most money in a marriage, a woman is almost always doing a double shift, unpaid. Even if she didn’t have her own money then, which she clearly does, she would still be entitled to the wealth her husband built while she managed his life, making him the success he is today.
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