结婚27年后，他们宣布离婚

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (R) and his wife Melinda sit during an interview in New York, February 22, 2016. /Reuters

当地时间5月3日，美国微软公司创始人比尔·盖茨与妻子梅琳达·盖茨在推特上发表联合声明称将结束长达27年的婚姻关系。

这份声明说：“经过深思熟虑以及努力挽救夫妻关系之后，我们决定终止婚姻。我们养育了三个优秀的孩子，并建立了一个在世界范围内运作的基金会，以使人们能过上健康和充实的生活。”

“但在人生的下一个阶段，继续保持婚姻关系已经无法让我们共同提升。”

Billionaire Bill Gates and Melinda Gates said in a joint statement on Monday that they have made the decision to end their marriage after 27 years.

In a joint petition for dissolution of marriage filed in King County Superior Court in Seattle, the couple stated, "The marriage is irretrievably broken."

The divorce filing, which states that the couple have no minor children, comes after the youngest of their three children is believed to have recently turned 18. The spouses asked the court to approve their agreement on the division of assets but did not disclose details.

"After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage," the two said in a statement posted by Bill Gates' Twitter account.

"We no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in the next phase of our lives. We ask for space and privacy for our family as we begin to navigate this new life," their statement said.

Screenshot of a statement posted on Bill Gates' Twitter account. /@BillGates

1975年，比尔·盖茨与保罗·艾伦一起创立了微软公司。梅琳达在杜克大学学习了计算机科学和经济学后，于1987年开始在该公司担任产品经理。二人于1994在美国夏威夷结婚。

2015年，梅琳达创立了专注于女性的投资公司Pivotal Ventures，并于2019年出版了一本关于女性赋权的书《女性的时刻》(The Moment of Lift)。

Gates' spouse, who recently began referring to herself as Melinda French Gates on most websites and social media, was raised in Dallas and studied computer science and economics at Duke University. She later joined Microsoft, where she met her future husband.  

She won Gates' heart after meeting at a work dinner, sharing a mutual love of puzzles and beating him at a math game. The couple were married in 1994 in Hawaii.

In 2015 she founded Pivotal Ventures, an investment company focused on women, and in 2019 published a book, "The Moment of Lift," which centered on female empowerment. Melinda Gates wrote about her childhood, life and private struggles as the wife of a public icon and stay-at-home mom with three kids.

2017年梅琳达·盖茨曾在接受CGTN主持人田薇的采访时谈到与比尔·盖茨之间的分歧。

彼时梅琳达表示，他们并不总是意见一致，但他们会在私下解决好，然后在工作中体现出一致的声音。

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“保持工作关系”

联合声明还透露，二人将在共同的基金会中继续保持工作关系。

比尔和梅琳达·盖茨基金会于2000年成立，是美国最大的私人慈善基金会，也是全球最大的慈善基金会之一。总部位于美国西雅图的这家基金会在全球共有1600名员工，每年向全球健康和发展等领域捐款约50亿美元。

其网站上最新的全年财务数据显示，截至2019年底，该基金会的净资产为433亿美元。从1994年到2018年，盖茨夫妇向基金会捐赠了超过360亿美元。

据《纽约时报》报道，在过去的一年中，比尔和梅琳达·盖茨基金会支出超过10亿美元以对抗新冠疫情。

The pair "will continue to work together to shape and approve foundation strategies, advocate for the foundation's issues and set the organization's overall direction," the Gates Foundation said in a statement. 

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, according to the latest full-year financials shown on its website.

From 1994 through 2018, Gates and his wife, who is 56, provided gifts of more than $36 billion to the Seattle-based foundation, the website said.

Bill Gates on a CNN show with host Fareed Zakaria /Screenshot

1986年，微软公司首次公开募股时，盖茨拥有该公司49%的股份，这使他瞬间成为了百万富翁。随着微软的爆炸性发展，他很快成为了世界上最富有的人之一。

在担任高管期间，他带领微软成长为世界领先的科技公司之一。2000年，盖茨辞去微软首席执行官一职，专注于慈善事业。他一直担任董事长至2014年，并于2020年3月离开公司董事会。

Gates dropped out of Harvard University to start Microsoft with school chum Paul Allen in 1975. Gates owned 49 percent of Microsoft at its initial public offering in 1986, which made him an instant multimillionaire. With Microsoft's explosive growth, he soon became one of the world's wealthiest individuals. 

After an executive tenure in which he helped transform the company into one of the world's leading technology firms, Gates stepped down as CEO of Microsoft in 2000 to focus on philanthropy. He remained chairman until 2014 and left the company's board in March 2020. 

Known in the technology industry as an acerbic and ruthless competitor, Gates drew the ire of rivals and eventually the U.S. government for Microsoft's business practices. 

The software giant was convicted of antitrust violations in the late 1990s. But the verdict was overturned on appeal, and the company then settled the case out of court. 

December 8, 2014: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. /Getty Images

Gates' public persona softened into an avuncular elder statesman as he turned his attention to philanthropy, and he has largely steered clear of the many controversies currently roiling the technology business.

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盖茨夫妇是近年来第二对高调结束婚姻的西雅图地区亿万富翁夫妇。

二人在财产分割方面的细节尚未公布。《福布斯》的数据显示比尔·盖茨目前是全世界第四富有的人，身价超过1300亿美元，约合人民币8414亿元。

2019年，亚马逊首席执行官杰夫·贝佐斯和妻子麦肯齐离婚。麦肯齐·斯科特后来再婚，目前专注于自己的慈善事业。她获得了亚马逊4%的股份，价值超过360亿美元。

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