American billionaire and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has reportedly transferred nearly $8 billion to a charity founded by his former wife, Melinda French Gates, five years after their divorce, which followed revelations of his extramarital affairs.
According to The New York Times, Bill Gates made a $7.88 billion donation to Melinda French Gates’ Pivotal Philanthropies Foundation in 2024. The contribution, disclosed in a recent tax filing, ranks among the largest public charitable donations ever recorded and offers the first clear insight into the financial terms of the couple’s highly publicised separation in 2021.
Melinda formally stepped down from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in May 2024. Despite her exit, she reportedly proposed that Gates contribute $12.5 billion toward a new philanthropic organisation she planned to establish. A spokesperson for Pivotal Philanthropies confirmed to the Times that the $12.5 billion agreement has now been fully honoured, with the nearly $8 billion payment forming part of that arrangement.
Melinda launched the Pivotal Philanthropies Foundation in 2022, a year after the divorce. By the end of 2023, the foundation reportedly held assets valued at $604 million.
The Gateses ended their 27-year marriage in 2021 in what has been described as one of the most expensive divorce settlements in history. As part of the split, Melinda is said to have received assets estimated at around $76 billion.
In the months that followed the divorce, reports emerged detailing Bil Gates’ past affair with a Microsoft employee. The woman reportedly wrote to Microsoft’s board in 2019, outlining the relationship, which allegedly began in 2000, and insisting that Melinda be informed.
The Microsoft board investigated the allegations and later described the relationship as “inappropriate,” according to reports at the time. Gates resigned from Microsoft’s board in March 2020 while the investigation was ongoing, before a final decision was reached.
Further reports later alleged that Bill Gates had repeatedly pursued relationships with staff members at both Microsoft and the philanthropic foundation he co-founded with Melinda. Another controversial claim suggested that Bill Gates had sought marriage advice from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, with whom he reportedly maintained a close relationship after first meeting in 2011.
Details of Gates’ association with Epstein surfaced publicly in 2019, months after Epstein died in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. Reports claimed the two men met on several occasions, including flights on Epstein’s private jet and late-night gatherings at his Manhattan residence.
The revelations continue to shape public perception of the billionaire philanthropist, even as both Gates and Melinda French Gates pursue separate paths in philanthropy and public life.
