Bill Gates opened up about his infidelities and mistakes made in his 27-year marriage to ex Melinda Gates on the Today Show earlier this week. The Microsoft co-founder, 66, sat down with host Savannah Guthrie and admitted to the journalist that some of the many rumors suggesting he had been unfaithful to his wife had truth to them.
“Were you unfaithful in your marriage? Is that one of the reasons there was a divorce?” Guthrie, 50, asked the billionaire. “I certainly made mistakes,” Gates responded, “and I take responsibility.” The philanthropist said that he didn’t think “delving into the particulars at this point is constructive,” and added, “but yes, I caused pain and I feel terrible about that.”
Last May, the once iconic couple shocked the world with the announcement of their divorce, and the software developer’s spokeswoman revealed to The Washington Post that he had “an affair almost 20 years ago which ended amicably,” in an emailed statement.
Melinda spoke to CBS Mornings‘ Gayle King in March about the “many tears” she had endured after this. When asked if her ex-husband did have affairs, she said that was a question for him to answer. When speaking about the one affair he did admit to, Melinda, 57, told Gayle, “I certainly believe in forgiveness, so I thought we had worked through some of that.” She continued, “It wasn’t one moment or one specific thing that happened. There just came a point in time where there was enough there that I realized it just wasn’t healthy and I couldn’t trust what we had.”
In his most recent interview on Tuesday’s Today episode, Bill noted that “The divorce is definitely a sad thing,” and confessed, “I have responsibility for causing a lot of pain to my family. It was a tough year.” He ended his time on the show with a more positive note, saying, “I feel good that all of us are moving forward now.” The former couple share 3 children: Jennifer, 25, Rory, 21, and Phoebe, 18, and also co-founded The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation together.
