On Monday, US multibillionaire entrepreneur Bill Gates and his wife Melinda announced via Twitter that they were divorcing after 27 years of marriage because they "no longer believe we can grow together as a couple". Melinda said in the filed divorce documents that the marriage was "irretrievably broken". Nonetheless, the Microsoft founder and his wife, who have three children, said they would continue to work together at their charity foundation.
The New Zealand Herald reported on Tuesday that, according to the divorce documents, there was no prenuptial agreement. The only written agreement pertaining to the divorce is the separation agreement.
The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that Melinda does not plan to request spousal support.
According to The New Zealand Herald, Bill Gates has an estimated net worth of $130.5 billion, (or even $146 billion, according to Celebrity Net Worth), which puts him fourth on the Forbes list of the world's wealthiest people. The newspaper said on Tuesday that the Gates divorce is now the most expensive in the world, coming in at an estimated cost of $127 billion.
The Gates are the fourth-richest people in the world, behind Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Bernard Arnault. In 2019, Amazon founder Bezos and his then-wife MacKenzie agreed to a record-breaking divorce settlement of around $35 billion.