This archive report was first published on 4 May 2021.
On May 3, 2021, Bill and Melinda Gates, co-founders of one of the world's largest private charitable foundations, filed for divorce in King County Superior Court in Seattle.
The couple, who have been married for 27 years, have pledged to continue their philanthropic work together despite their divorce.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has become a powerful force in global public health, spending over $50 billion in the past two decades to combat poverty and disease.
The foundation has backed widely praised programs in malaria and polio eradication, child nutrition, and vaccines, and last year committed $1.75 billion to COVID-19 relief.
According to their joint petition for dissolution of marriage, the couple has agreed on how to divide their marital assets, but the details of that accord were not disclosed.
Launched in 2000, the nonprofit Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation ranks as the largest private philanthropic foundation in the United States and one of the world's biggest, with net assets of $43.3 billion at the end of 2019.
From 1994 through 2018, the couple gifted more than $36 billion to the Seattle-based foundation.
Despite their divorce, Bill and Melinda Gates will remain as co-chairs and trustees of the organization.
