Evidently Melinda French Gates thinks philanthropy is about sharing not just her personal wealth but intimate details about her personal life too. Because only that explains her telling all about her divorce from Bill in a CBS interview with Oprah’s “best friend” Gayle King.
When Melinda French Gates and Bill Gates were married in 1994, she really thought that they would be married ‘till death do us part.’ Instead, after 27 years together, the couple announced their split last May. … French Gates said that she never thought she would end up being divorced and did not expect their split to be a national conversation.
After the divorce came out, Bill Gates admitted to having an affair. French Gates said she had thought the couple was going to work through their issues but there came a point where she realized she couldn’t trust what they had.
(CBS News, March 3, 2022)
In fact, she shared that she caught Bill cheating in 2000. Yet she confessed – with no hint of self-awareness, let alone embarrassment – that it took her until 2021 to figure out she could no longer trust him.
Surely that reveals more about her enabling insecurity than his serial infidelity, no? I bet McKenzie Scott (Bezos) will never indulge in this kind of narcissistic public therapy – not even on Oprah’s couch.
On the other hand, apropos of enabling, Bill would be forgiven for thinking:
- Yeah, I f*cked up. And f*cked a lot of other women too. But it’s not like I was deceiving her all those years. So why the public confessional painting herself like a woman betrayed who was blindsided by deception after 27 years!
Mind you, employees at Microsoft are on record saying that he confided internally not only his regret over the breakdown of their marriage but his blame and shame. And, despite PR statements to the contrary, I suspect his shock resignation last May was him falling on his sword in a futile attempt to save his marriage. And, unlike far too many rich men, I suspect he was happy to give her more than her fair share of their assets.
More to the point, though, Melinda knows every word she utters in the media about their divorce is tantamount to twisting that sword. If you’ve seen any reporter ask him about it, you know how that makes him squirm – as if he’s suffering flashbacks from that infamous cross-examination by David Boies. Therefore, you’d be forgiven for thinking that her CBS interview was more spiteful than confessional.
Of course, social media is replete with people telling all about their private lives. But I fear Melinda is doing almost as much to ruin her reputation by joining this maddening crowd as Bill did to ruin his by cheating on her.
Granted, it did not help that he is among the high-profile men who blithely befriended notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. But, here too, Melinda knew about that for years; and like his affairs, she only seemed to become bothered when it became fodder for public gossip. Which is why her telling all now is so rich with irony …
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Oprah & Gayle… Jeffrey Epstein…
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