Melinda French Gates, the former wife of American billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates, has recently been in the news for a variety of reasons. From finally opening up on her divorce from her husband of 27 years Bill agates to being spotted with her new boyfriend Philip Vaughn, Melinda has been actively making headlines one after another.
Currently, Melinda, 60, is in the news due to the launch of her new book ‘The Next Day: Transitions, Change and Moving Forward’ which was released on April 15th, 2025. “There’s a lot that’s happened in my life over the last few years that I didn’t see coming,” she wrote at the start of her book.
In the book, Melinda has revealed various personal details that the world was not privy to until now. From the trip to Mexico where she told Bill that she wanted to start living separately to the panic attacks she faced after the divorce, she seems to have written a tell-all that is making new headlines by the minute.
While writing about her life post-divorce in the book, Melinda shared an interesting and emotional anecdote about her wedding video. She shared that she used to watch her wedding video every year around her wedding anniversary with Bill Gates, which was on January 1st, 1994.
In the clip, the couple is standing in front of a tiered wedding cake but “Bill doesn’t know what he’s supposed to do” wrote Melinda.
“Instead of cutting one piece and feeding me a single bite like every other groom in history, he thought he was supposed to cut a piece for everyone. When I figured out what he was doing, I burst out laughing so hard I couldn’t talk,” she continued.
Although he initially appeared confused “because he can tell he’s gotten something wrong,” eventually he started laughing as well, just because she was.
“It captures so many of the things I loved about him,” she wrote, noting that “watching it now brings me to tears.”
Why did Bill and Melinda Gates get divorced?
Image credits: Getty Images
Recently, in an interview, Bill Gates shared that his divorce was the “biggest regret” of his life. However, for Melinda, the divorce was “something that was necessary.” “If you can’t live your values out inside your most intimate relationship, it was necessary,” she told The Times.
The couple’s divorce was finalised in 2021 with the reason being that they could no longer “grow together as a couple in this next phase of life.” Bill later admitted to causing “pain” in his family whereas Melinda hinted in an interview with CBS Mornings that Bill’s meetings with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were a factor in her decision to leave.
Bill is now rumoured to be dating Paula Hurd, widow of the former Oracle CEO Mark Hurd. Meanwhile, Melinda too has moved on in life and she has been spotted with Philip Vaughn, a tech entrepreneur and founder of Tavour, a craft beer delivery company.
