When Did Bill Gates Get Married

Bill and Melinda Gates have been 1 of the world'due south most famous couples for iii decades — and along the manner, they've been aboveboard almost how their relationship worked.

After 27 years of marriage, the pair announced their divorce in a statement on social media Mon, saying they "no longer believe we tin grow together as a couple in this next stage of our lives" simply "will continue our work together" at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Go push notifications with news, features and more.

+ Follow

Post-obit

You lot'll go the latest updates on this topic in your browser notifications.

It'll be no simple task, as Bill, 65, and Melinda's lives have been so closely intertwined since the beginning of their relationship.

Here are some of the most surprising aspects of their journey together.

bill and melinda gates

Neb and Melinda Gates

| Credit: Elaine Thompson/AP/Shutterstock

Bill Took Annual Vacations with His Ex-Girlfriend

Earlier he met Melinda afterward she joined Microsoft as a product manager in 1987, Bill had been dating Ann Winblad, a software entrepreneur and venture capitalist, according to Time. He developed such a strong bail with Winblad that Neb made sure to keep her in his life afterward they carve up in 1987.

"Even now, Gates has an arrangement with his wife that he and Winblad tin keep one vacation tradition alive," Walter Isaacson reported in his 1997 Time story on Neb's life and career. "Every jump, as they have for more than than a decade, Gates spends a long weekend with Winblad at her beach cottage on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where they ride dune buggies, hang-glide and walk on the embankment."

"We can play putt-putt while discussing biotechnology," he told the magazine in 1997.

Winblad added to Fourth dimension: "We share our thoughts well-nigh the world and ourselves. And nosotros marvel about how, as two young overachievers, we began a not bad adventure on the fringes of a little-known industry and information technology landed the states at the heart of an amazing universe."

Melinda Gates and Pecker Gates

Melinda and Beak Gates

| Credit: Christopher Farber/Gates Archive

Melinda Turned Neb Down When He Start Asked Her on a Date

He may exist of the most successful men on the planet, but Melinda said she was less than impressed when the Microsoft billionaire asked her out for the first time.

"When Bill outset asked me out, he said, 'I was thinking perhaps nosotros could get out two weeks from this evening,'" Melinda recalled in a Facebook post in 2015. "I told him he wasn't spontaneous enough for me."

Merely Bill wasn't set to requite up.

"He chosen me an 60 minutes afterward to suggest nosotros get together that night," Melinda wrote in the post. "He asked: 'Is that spontaneous enough for you?'"

It ultimately turned out to be enough for Melinda, who joked in a 2019 Instagram post that Bill had since "gotten a fiddling more spontaneous over the years."

Bill Listed the Pros and Cons of Marrying Melinda Before Proposing

Because he was so busy running Microsoft, Bill wasn't initially sure if tying the knot was for him.

The couple opened up nigh the dilemma in the 2019 Netflix series Inside Pecker's Encephalon, where Melinda revealed that she walked in on her then-young man making a pros and cons list about whether to ally her.

"I took the idea of wedlock very seriously," Bill explained in the documentary. "You know, nosotros cared a lot for each other and there were but 2 possibilities: either, we were going to break up or we were going to get married."

Added Melinda: "Bill wanted to be married, merely he didn't know whether he could really commit to it and accept Microsoft."

"When he was having trouble making the decision nearly getting married, he was incredibly clear that it was not about me," she told the outlet. "It was most, 'Tin I get the remainder correct between work and family life?'"

Bill Gates and Melinda Gates

Bill and Melinda Gates

| Credit: Kevin Mazur/WireImage

Nib Sought Approving from His Ex-Girlfriend Before Proposing to Melinda

When information technology came time for Beak to propose to Melinda, he asked his ex, Winblad, for her permission.

"When I was off on my own thinking almost marrying Melinda, I called Ann and asked for her approving," he recalled to Time in the 1997 story.

Winblad ultimately had no qualms about him popping the question.

"I said she'd be a proficient friction match for him considering she had intellectual stamina," she told the outlet.

Bill Enjoyed Doing the Family'south Dishes

Later on tying the knot on the Hawaiian isle of Lanai on January. 1, 1994, Bill and Melinda went on to have three kids: son Rory John, 21, and daughters Phoebe Adele, xviii, and Jennifer Katharine, 25.

Though Melinda chose to be a stay-at-home mom while Neb remained CEO of Microsoft, she told CBS'Sunday Morn in 2017 that they made sure to have an equal partnership.

"He was surprised, he was definitely surprised," Melinda said of her choice to focus on the family's home life. "But I said to him, 'You know, it simply doesn't make sense. You can't be the CEO and become equally hard as you're going and — somebody has to exist at habitation, correct? We didn't want our children raised by somebody else. I said, 'You know, if we want them to take the values we accept, somebody has to be home.'"

"It's admittedly a partnership of equals," she added. "It'due south important to both of united states that the earth understands that nosotros are running this place together. This is our articulation values being played out in the world."

That partnership fifty-fifty included splitting some household chores, according to Nib.

During a 2014 Reddit Ask Me Annihilation, the billionaire was asked, "What is something you savour doing that you recollect no one would expect from you?"

In response, Bill revealed, "I practice the dishes every nighttime — other people volunteer, just I like the way I do it."

Melinda Chosen Their Marriage a "Surprise"

In a 2019 Instagram video, Melinda opened upwardly about her relationship with Bill. While she knew that she would likely meet him at Microsoft, she said she never idea things would go further.

"When I moved to Seattle to take the job at Microsoft... I knew I would meet Bill considering the visitor was small," she said. "But I certainly had no idea that I would fall in dear with Nib or that we would go married."

"Even when we were dating early on on, I never idea we would get married," continued Melinda. "That's definitely been a big surprise."

In the caption of the post, Melinda added, "That's been 1 of the best surprises of my life."