Bill Gates says divorcing Melinda Gates was mistake he ‘most regrets’

Bill Gates has cited his divorce from Melinda French Gates as the biggest regret of his life.

The 69-year-old billionaire made the candid confession during an interview with The Sunday Times. He shared that while he’s “more cheerful now,” following his 2021 divorce from Melinda, he’s not happy with how his marriage ended.

“That was the mistake I most regret,” he said.

Although the Microsoft CEO said he has experienced other failures in his life, his divorce is “at the top of the list,” he said.

“There are others, but none that matter,” added Gates, who has been dating Paula Hurd since 2023. “The divorce thing was miserable for me and Melinda for at least two years.”

Still, Bill said that he and his ex have stayed on good terms, and “see each other” often.

“We have three kids and two grandchildren so there are family events. The kids are doing well. They have good values,” he explained. The couple tied the knot in 1994. Their three children are now adults: Jennifer, 28, Rory, 25, and Phoebe, 22.

Gates didn’t go into any details about what triggered the divorce in the interview, though he admitted in 2021 that he had an affair with an employee during the marriage.

Before he and Melinda split, Gates also met a number of times with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who took his own life in a Manhattan correctional facility in 2019. Gates said the men talked about global health initiatives but that he stopped the meetings when he realized Epstein’s promises to help could not be trusted.

Melinda Gates later told Gayle King on CBS Mornings in 2022 that her husband’s relationship with Epstein played a role in their divorce.

She told a New York Times book author that she met with Epstein ”exactly one time” in 2013 at his Manhattan home, and it “unsettled“ her.

She was reportedly disturbed by his collection of photographs of glass eyeballs, supposedly made for injured soldiers, provocatively dressed female figurines on his marble staircase and a wall of signed photographs of famous men.

She told CBS that Epstein was “abhorrent” and “evil personified.”

Still, Melinda Gates explained, it “wasn’t one moment or one specific thing that happened. There just came a point in time where there was enough there that I realized it wasn’t healthy and I couldn’t trust what we had.”

Bill later addressed those comments, telling CBS News he will “always be sorry for the pain that I caused Melinda and our family.”

He added: “I admire Melinda and everything she does to improve the lives of women and girls around the world, and I’m grateful for the work we continue to do together at our foundation.”

In June 2024 — one month after Melinda exited the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — she once again reflected on her divorce, noting that she was grateful to have the private breakup.

“It gave us the privacy to do what needed to be done in private,” she said during an interview with Time about going through the split during the pandemic. “You know, I separated first before I made the full decision about a divorce. And to be able to do that in private while I’m still trying to take care of the kids, while still making certain decisions about how you’re going to disentangle your life — thank God.”

She acknowledged that when her split happened, both her work with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and her family were on her mind.

“I thought a lot about my three children,” she said. “But I certainly thought about the effect on the foundation. Those are the three biggest buckets: me, the kids, and the foundation. And I wanted to make sure that when we came through it to the other side — when I came through it on my side — all of those pieces were intact.”

She also spoke candidly about being in a good place in her life, despite how difficult her breakup was.

“Getting a divorce is a horrible thing. It’s just painful. It’s awful when you realize you need one,” she said, before correcting herself by clarifying that divorce is a “hard thing” instead of a “horrible thing.”