Melinda Gates initially ignored the signs that her marriage to Bill Gates wasn’t working.
“When that voice would come — and it would come at different times because of things that had happened outside the marriage that I would later come to learn about — I kept pushing it away,” Melinda recalled on Wednesday’s episode of Elizabeth Day’s “How to Fail” podcast.
Melinda acknowledged that she and the Microsoft founder had a strong “foundation” that she wasn’t willing to give up on, noting that they had three children and co-founded their powerhouse Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
“I believed in that work,” she said. “I still believe in the work of the foundation.”
However, the “Next Day” author, 60, realized that she had to face the music as Bill’s infidelity came to light.
“At some point, I had to turn towards it, and I just knew it and I knew it in my soul,” Melinda said of their relationship being over.
It wasn’t an easy decision to leave the tech tycoon, as she takes marriage “very seriously.”
“It wasn’t just two of us involved, it was five of us,” she said, referring to their kids.
Melinda took the time to reflect and ask herself why she was staying and what her life would look like if she left.
“It’s two people who’ve come together, hopefully in love — and in my case, I would definitely say that — so then the pulling it apart later is really hard,” she said.
During the interview, Melinda went on to urge others to listen to their intuition, even if it means going through something “very painful.”
The former couple tied the knot in 1994 and welcomed three kids: Jennifer, 29, Rory, 26, and Phoebe, 22.
However, in May 2021, Melinda announced that they were ending things before finalizing their divorce three months later.
Last year, reports surfaced that Melinda and Bill, 69, had been separated for a year before she filed for divorce. That year, news also broke that Bill allegedly had an affair with a Microsoft employee.
Melinda has since found love again with tech entrepreneur Philip Vaughn, while Bill is dating Paula Hurd, who was married to the late Oracle co-CEO Mark Hurd.