Bill and Melinda Gates to divorce, but charitable foundation to remain

SEATTLE, United States - Billionaire benefactors Bill and Melinda Gates, co-founders of one of the world's largest private charitable foundations, filed for divorce on Monday after 27 years of marriage but pledged to continue their philanthropic work together.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has become one of the most powerful and influential forces in global public health, spending more than $50 billion over the past two decades to bring a business approach to combating poverty and disease.

The Gates have backed widely praised programs in malaria and polio eradication, child nutrition and vaccines. The foundation last year committed some $1.75 billion to COVID-19 relief.

In a joint petition for dissolution of marriage, the couple asserted their legal union was "irretrievably broken," but said they had reached agreement on how to divide their marital assets. No details of that accord were disclosed in the filing in King County Superior Court in Seattle.

Bill Gates, 65, who co-founded Microsoft Corp, and his spouse, Melinda French Gates, 56, met after she joined the software giant as a product manager, and they dated for a few years before marrying in January 1994 in Hawaii.

"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 joint statement posted on each of their individual Twitter accounts.

"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," they said.

The divorce petition, which states that the couple have no minor children, comes after the youngest of their three offspring recently turned 18.

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, the couple gifted more than $36 billion to the Seattle-based foundation, the website said.

Last year, investor Warren Buffett reported donating more than $2 billion of stock from his Berkshire Hathaway Inc to the Gates Foundation as part of previously announced plans to give away his entire fortune before his death.

NO CHANGES TO THEIR ROLES

In their divorce petition, the couple asks the court "to dissolve our marriage" and to divide their communal property, business interests and liabilities "as set forth in our separation contract," though that accord was not made public.

Bill Gates is ranked No. 4 on the Forbes list of the world's wealthiest individuals, with an estimated $124 billion fortune.

In a separate statement, the Gates Foundation said the couple would remain as co-chairs and trustees of the organization.

"They 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 foundation's statement said.

The split comes two years after another leading Seattle-based billionaire and philanthropist, Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos, said that he and his then-wife, MacKenzie, were getting divorced.

At least one critic of billionaire benefactors cited the Gates' split as a cautionary tale in the wisdom of concentrating so much sway over global humanitarian issues under the control of super-wealthy individuals.

"The Gates divorce will do more than upend a family's life. It will ramify into the worlds of business, education, public health, civil society, philanthropy, and beyond," Anand Giridharadas, author of the book "Winners Take All" told Reuters.

"That is because our society has made the colossal error of allowing wealth to purchase the chance to make quasi-governmental decisions as a private citizen," he said.

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.

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.

Melinda French Gates, who recently added her maiden name on most of her websites and social media, was raised in Dallas and studied computer science and economics at Duke University before joining Microsoft.

In 2015 she founded Pivotal Ventures, an investment company focused on women and families, and in 2019 published a book, "The Moment of Lift", centered on female empowerment. 

-reuters

2016: The year love died in Hollywood

LOS ANGELES, United States — The imminent divorce of “Brangelina” is the latest in a series of celebrity splits giving the impression that the average Hollywood marriage has about as much chance of success as a non-white actor at the Oscars.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie-Pitt have both been through divorces before, he with “Friends” star Jennifer Aniston and she with actors Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton.

This year has also seen Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin finalize their famous “conscious uncoupling” around the same time that Johnny Depp and Amber Heard were squabbling over the terms of their split.

Drew Barrymore, Lisa Marie Presley, Dennis Quaid and James McAvoy have announced divorces from their respective partners too, sparking some gossip websites to refer to 2016 as the year of the Hollywood divorce.

In 2012 statistics website PolitiFact estimated that the lifelong probability of an American marriage ending in divorce was 40–50 percent, citing academics and the National Survey of Family Growth.

Kelly Frawley, a partner at New York law firm Kasowitz, Benson, Torres and Friedman, believes that while there is no reason to think the rich and famous split more often than the rest of us, the pressures which put strain on relationships are amplified in the rarified air of Tinseltown.

“There are standard things that cause marriages to disintegrate — concerns about money, fights about how to raise the children, issues of fidelity,” she told AFP.

“Those are much bigger scale when you are dealing with a celebrity couple because there’s so much accessibility to all the things that make it easy to step out of a marriage.

“You can spend money with ease, you can leave with ease, you can have affairs with ease.”

‘Unique microscope’

It’s not all doom and gloom. Denzel and Pauletta Washington have been going strong since 1983 while Billy Crystal, Christopher Walken and their respective sweethearts expect to celebrate golden wedding anniversaries before the end of the decade.

But unlike skin peels, kale and the 5:2 diet, divorce is one celebrity fad that has endured through the ages and the Hollywood hills are littered with the carcasses of euthanized showbiz marriages.

Among the high profile casualties are Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner, who announced on June 30 2015, one day after their ten-year anniversary, that they were calling it a day.

Tom Cruise was on his third marriage by the time he and Katie Holmes split in 2012 and there were divorces in 2010 for Ryan Reynolds and Scarlett Johansson, and Elizabeth Hurley and Arun Nayar.

“Celebrities are under a unique microscope, where every nuance is dissected over and over again the slightest misunderstanding is reported like you’re splitting up right away,” said Judi Bloom, a licensed marriage and family therapist based in Southern California.

“That can really wear down a couple in the end.”

One big problem for Hollywood couples, she told AFP, is that they spend so much time apart on their separate projects, which can “pull at the fabric of a relationship.”

Some avoid growing apart by continuing to work together after getting hitched.

Warren Beatty and Annette Bening began dating during the filming of “Bugsy” in 1991, married a year later and filmed “Love Affair” together in 1994.

Breathing space

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett are still together a quarter century after meeting on the set of his sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” when she auditioned to play his girlfriend.

She didn’t get the part but she got Smith — marrying the actor in 1997 and appearing alongside him in 2001 biopic “Ali.”

It doesn’t always work, of course.

Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Burton have joined forces for no fewer than seven films but called it a day after 13 years, an unlucky number which was also the length of the marriage of Woody Allen and Mia Farrow, and the number of his films in which she appeared.

Rob Shuter, a former Hollywood publicist for Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Simpson and others who now runs NaughtyGossip.com, told AFP celebrities and their representatives plan divorce announcements down to the most minute detail.

“The announcement about Brad and Angie came out one day after the weekly magazines went to print, which means that they get a week of breathing space,” he said.

Shuter says that while print is less important in the digital age than it used to be, the timing was still “a disaster” for People, which has the largest audience of any American magazine, and its rival Us Weekly.

He believes Pitt would have been the more passive partner in planning their divorce announcement because of Jolie-Pitt’s track record with carefully stage-managing the news cycle.

“When she was pregnant with Shiloh she didn’t make the announcement with an official statement, she walked around the corner and let her bump show for ‘People’ magazine,” he said.

source: entertainment.inquirer.net

Clint Eastwood and his wife finalize divorce

MONTEREY, Calif. — Clint Eastwood and his wife of 18 years have finalized their divorce.

A Monterey County Superior Court judge finalized the Eastwoods’ divorce Tuesday and approved a judgment that does not state how the pair will divide their assets.

Clint and Dina Marie Eastwood have one daughter together. She turned 18 years old earlier this month.

The Oscar-winning director’s wife filed for divorce in October 2013, citing irreconcilable differences.

The Eastwoods have been married since March 1996. They met when she was assigned to interview the 83-year-old actor for a TV news station.

Clint Eastwood was previously married to Maggie Johnson from 1953 to 1984.

The judgment was first reported Tuesday by celebrity news website RadarOnline.com.

source: entertainment.inquirer.net

Khloe Kardashian files for divorce from Lamar Odom

LOS ANGELES —After months of speculation, Khloe Kardashian is ending her four-year marriage to Lamar Odom.

The reality TV star filed for divorce Friday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, citing irreconcilable differences. She also wants her last name restored to Kardashian from Kardashian Odom.

The filing comes days after Odom pleaded no contest on Monday to a misdemeanor drunken driving charge.

The 34-year-old athlete was arrested last August after his Mercedes-Benz SUV was seen weaving on an LA freeway.

He seemed to address rumors of personal problems when he tweeted a cryptic message in September, saying he had been “Seeing the Snakes.”

Only the Kardashian family, Odom said then, was standing by him.

The 6-foot-10-inch power forward has been out of the NBA since going unsigned as a free agent after a miserable season last year.

Odom last played for the Los Angeles Clippers during the 2012-13 season, averaging a career-low 4.0 points and 5.9 rebounds. Clippers coach Doc Rivers met with him last month, but apparently nothing came of those talks.

He had his best years with the Los Angeles Lakers between 2004 and 2011. The team won NBA championships in 2010 and 2011 and Odom won the NBA’s sixth man award during that second championship run.

Kardashian, 29, is best known for starring with her sisters Kim and Kourtney, and her mother, Kris Jenner, in the long-running reality TV series “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.”

She also runs an upscale clothing store with her sisters and was featured in the short-lived reality series with Odom, called “Khloe & Lamar.”

The two were married in 2009 in a large ceremony that was taped for the E! network, following a whirlwind engagement that was also filmed.

Kardashian laughed last spring when asked about critics who said that the marriage wouldn’t last.

“I think everyone said it wouldn’t last, but I can totally understand why,” she said. “We knew each other for only 30 days and then we got married. … I just felt it and same with Lamar. Thank God it worked because it very well could’ve gone the other way.”

In recent episodes of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” Odom hasn’t been featured and the show has hinted at marital issues.

TMZ first reported Friday’s divorce filing.

source: entertainment.inquirer.net

Ben Harper and Laura Dern Check Yo'self Before You RECONCILE Yo'self?

Estranged husband and wife Ben Harper and Laura Dern may not be so estranged after all ... the former couple kicked it together in Bev Hills yesterday ... more proof they're trying to get back together.

TMZ broke the story ... Harper blindsided Dern with divorce papers back in 2010 ... after 5 years of marriage and two children.

But last month, the two were spotted arm-in-arm at a Golden Globes after party ... and yesterday they looked pretty coupley strolling around Beverly Hills.

2nd time's the charm?

source: TMZ