The Gates are unlocked – but why do we care about Bill and Melinda’s divorce?

Forget elections, lockdowns and vaccines, the real story this week is what (or who) is behind Bill and Melinda Gates’ divorce?

After 27 years of marriage and three children, the notorious couple will set out to split their $130 billion fortune, without a prenup. Superstar lawyers are being lined up to honour a ‘separation contract’ detailing the division of property and possessions. All eyes are on what is set to be the most expensive divorce in history. 

According to court documents acquired by the Daily Mail, Melinda Gates filed for divorce from the Microsoft founder, calling the marriage “irretrievably broken”, whilst their joint Twitter statement announced they “no longer believe we can grow together as a couple”. 

Since the announcement, speculation about why the couple has called it quits has spread across the internet. One Twitter-favourite conspiracy is that Bill caught Melinda cheating on him… with Apple software. Others are pointing to three of the four wealthiest men on the planet (Musk, Bezos and Gates) being divorced as living proof that money can’t buy happiness. But with the law firm Stewarts reporting a 122 per cent increase in divorce lawyer enquiries between September and December of 2020, whatever the reason for their divorce, Bill and Melinda are not the only ones to have suffered during lockdown.

In the spring of last year, the relationship charity Relate collected data suggesting that more than one in eight people living with their partner in lockdown were having relationship doubts and 23 per cent said the pandemic was putting pressure on their relationship. Those in new relationships faced a tough choice between spending months apart or rushing moving in together, whilst couples that had been married for decades suddenly found themselves spending unprecedented amounts of time together, sometimes to the detriment of the relationship. The same survey found that 27 per cent of respondents were finding their partner irritating during lockdown (22 per cent of men compared to 31 per cent of women), a number which, compared to anecdotal evidence, might seem quite low.

By June of 2020, 17 per cent of people surveyed by Relate said the lockdown had made them realise their relationship was over, the main reasons being children, finances, and mismatched opinions on lockdown.

Seeing as Forbes ranks Bill Gates as the fourth richest person in the world, and the couple lives in a 66,000 square-foot mansion with seven bedrooms and 18 bathrooms, it is unlikely that money or getting under each other’s feet at home drove the couple apart. But that hasn’t stopped us guessing.

The Gates’ divorce hit the news due to their extreme wealth and various foundations and initiatives that fund public health research, business ventures and help philanthropic causes around the world. But beneath the interest in the impact on the couple’s wide-reaching wealth and philanthropy, there is a strong and greedy appetite for high-profile relationship drama online. 

When Amazon founder Jeff Bezos separated from his wife MacKenzie Scott in 2019 and she promised to give away her $38 billion divorce settlement, it was quickly adopted as a win for ‘girl boss feminism’. Meanwhile, Gwyneth Paltrow tried to give divorce a wellness makeover by describing her split from Coldplay frontman Chris Martin as a ‘conscious uncoupling’. Brad Pitt’s marriages and divorces to Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie are major moments of pop-culture history and the recent divorce announcement from Kim Kardashian and Kanye West sent ripples through the internet. 

Perhaps something is comforting in the thought of the rich and famous going through the humbling experience of a breakup, especially during a time when many people are experiencing relationship struggles of their own. Even for a ‘non-celebrity’ couple like Bill and Melinda, there is also a social media presence and detailed autobiographies that give us a false sense of insight into their relationships, inviting personal opinions and emotions toward their ending. How, people are asking on social media, is it possible that they are divorcing when, in January last year, Melinda posted an Instagram celebrating her 26th anniversary with a caption reading, “I’m still marveling at just how full a heart can get”. Our curiosity into the goings-on of the rich and famous is largely invisible to them, which is likely half the fun: the divorce will play out on the news and social media like a tech-version of Succession or Dallas until Netflix snaps up the rights and makes it into a dramatised television show anyway. 

Post-Covid divorces are set to come in thick and fast after a worldwide relationship of true extremes, for celebrities and us mere mortals too. The budget store Poundland has just launched a new line of divorce-themed party essentials in preparation, including balloons and banners reading ‘free at last’ and ‘newly unwed’. I am sure they would look the part in Bill Gates’ mansion.