Bill and Melinda Gates’ Relationship Timeline

Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates announced their plans to divorce in May 2021, which came as a shock to many after 27 years of marriage.

“After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage,” they shared in a statement on May 3, adding that they “no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in this next phase of our lives.”

The couple met in 1987 when Melinda started working at Microsoft, the company Bill founded. After the romance got serious, Bill made a pro/con list for whether he should propose (really), and they decided to embark on a life together. Bill and Melinda married in 1994, the same year they launched the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The two welcomed daughter Jennifer in 1996, son Rory in 1999 and daughter Phoebe in 2002.

“Working together as well as raising a family together, there’s a certain intensity to that,” Bill said in a 2019 Facebook Live. “But we’re very lucky because we mostly see things the same way, the goals are very much the same.”

Scroll through for a full timeline of Bill and Melinda’s romance: