Before Bill Gates married Melinda, whom he met when she started working for Microsoft back in the day, he dated another woman who remained a very significant person to him his entire life. Now, after the news that the founders of one of the biggest foundations there are, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which donated a grant of $1.75 billion to vaccine initiatives, diagnostics and research during the coronavirus pandemic, are divorcing, the truth about Bill’s relationship to his ex-girlfriend Ann Winblad came to light.
Bill and Ann, who is a venture capitalist, started a relationship after they met at a Ben Rosen-Esther Dyson computer conference in 1984. They both shared passion for high tech and clicked right away.
Although they broke up three years later, the two have remained very close. According to an article published by Time Magazine, Bill made an agreement with Melinda to be able to spend a weekend with Ann every year, which in fact was the case, as per writer Walter Isaacson.
Bill Gates decades-long other woman Ann Winblad revealed https://t.co/8xNngogixp
— P.M. NEWS (@pmnewsnigeria) May 4, 2021
The two were reported to have been spending a long-weekend each spring at Ann’s beach cottage in North Carolina where they would take long walks, hang glide, and ride dune biggies.
In fact, some magazines wrote that Bill even asked for Ann’s approval when he wanted to marry Melinda, and she was reported to had said how Melinda was the perfect match for him and gave him her blessings.
Sometimes there’s that one small detail about a famous person that sticks with you for years and for me it’s been that Bill Gates negotiated into his marriage the right to take an annual beach house weekend with his ex-girlfriend.
— Megan K. Stack (@Megankstack) May 4, 2021
Ann is married to San Francisco private investigator Edward Alex Kline, the younger brother of actor Kevin Kline.
As per Time, Ann commented her relationship with Bill and spending a weekend with him each year saying that they share their thoughts about the world and themselves. “And we marvel about how, as two young overachievers, we began a great adventure on the fringes of a little-known industry and it landed us at the center of an amazing universe.”
Melinda Gates approved Bill’s unusual arrangement with his ex-girlfriend Ann Winblad https://t.co/io8Lygfnzj
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) May 4, 2021
After the split of Bill and Melinda, which is dubbed one of the most expensive divorces in the world, we can’t wait to see how the enormous wealth between the former spouses will be divided.