The spokesperson for Bill Gates has confirmed the rumor that’s doing the rounds on the internet: He did had an extramarital affair with a Microsoft employee almost 20 years ago.
Microsoft haD taken this news into account, and the executive board was in the process of investigating the “intimate relationship” a few months before Gates resigned from his position.
Earlier this month, Bill Gates and his wife Melinda left the world reeling in shock as they announced their decision to part ways after 27 years of marriage. The two had posted similar updates on their social media saying; a ‘great deal of thought and a lot of work’ had gone into the difficult decision to end the relationship.
Bridgitt Arnold, Gates’s spokeswoman, emailed a statement that confirmed the news of Gates’s affair and mentioned that it ended ‘amicably.’ In 2019, a Microsoft engineer reported her sexual relationship with Gates, as noted by Microsoft spokesman, Frank Shaw.
Consequently, the board members looked into the allegation and conducted an extensive investigation to uncover the truth. It is unclear whether these allegations led to the divorce of the Microsoft co-founder and his wife.
When this investigation was underway, Gates resigned from his position on the board. Although there is solid evidence that confirms Gate’s stepping down to be linked to the allegations, Arnold declared that his decision was not based on the investigation into his affair. She spoke about his growing interest “in spending more time on his philanthropy,” which led to the ultimate decision of leaving the Microsoft board.
However, despite Arnold’s conviction regarding the matter, Wall Street Journal has noted that Microsoft directors made the decision of removing Gates from the board, as an exhaustive investigation into his affair was underway. When Bill Gates ‘stepped down from the board of the company he co-founded, he also resigned from his position on the board of Berkshire Hathaway.
Although Shaw never disclosed what the investigation concluded, the New York Times reported the news of Bill Gates getting involved with several women at Microsoft as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Moreover, Gates’s involvement with sexual offender Jeffrey Epstein became news in 2019, which led to his wife, Melinda hiring divorce lawyers to end their marriage.
Arnold refuted these claims and spoke of her extreme disappointment to witness so many “untruths published about the cause, the circumstances and the timeline of Bill Gates’ divorce.” In response to the claim made about Bill Gates’s relationship with Epstein, she declared it was only for official purposes.
These details about Bill Gates’s past will certainly weigh down on his sterling reputation. Gates is not only known for his work at Microsoft, but also for his extensive contributions to charity, including his own charity foundation.
