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  • 2021-05-04 (xsd:date)
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  • Did Bill Gates Negotiate Vacations With Ex-Girlfriend Into Marriage Contract? (en)
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  • The lifestyles of the uber-wealthy Bill and Melinda Gates were under scrutiny again as the high-profile couple announced the end of their marriage. On May 3, 2021, ex-Microsoft CEO Bill Gates and his wife Melinda shared identical statements revealing that they had decided to divorce after 27 years of marriage. Many speculated how the Gateses would divide their assets, which amounts to billions of dollars. Bill Gates is estimated to be worth more than $130 billion and is described as one of the richest men in the world. As word of the Gateses' divorce spread, an unusual detail about their marriage resurfaced online, suggesting that the couple had some sort of formal agreement involving Bill's ex-girlfriend. The UK tabloid, Mirror, also ran a headline that read, Bill Gates insisted on taking ex on annual holiday as part of Melinda marriage contract. According to a 1997 profile of Bill Gates in Time magazine written by Walter Isaacson (who also penned the authorized biography of Steve Jobs), Bill was open about the fact that he kept a vacation tradition with an ex-girlfriend, Ann Winblad: The details of whether this was a formal arrangement between Bill and Melinda are unknown, however. It is not clear whether it was written into a contract as the Mirror claimed. According to court documents obtained by TMZ, the Gateses did not have a prenuptial agreement, only a separation contract. It is possible the arrangement was made informally between the couple, and not as part of a contract. Details of the separation contract were not made public. It is also unknown whether Gates continued this tradition with Winblad beyond 1997, which is when the article was published, but they had been doing it for more than a decade, including during the early years of his marriage to Melinda, which took place in 1994. The profile also included another detail about Winblad when describing Gates' office: The arrangement was acknowledged by Gates and Winblad, but given that it is unknown whether it was hammered into a formal contract, we rate this claim as Mixture. (en)
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