Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda Gates informed in identical tweets that they had made the decision to end their 27-year-old marriage. The couple, who got married in 1994 in Hawaii, had met after Melinda began working at Microsoft as a product manager in 1987. They have three children - Jennifer, Rory and Phoebe - together.

Announcing that they would continue to work together at the non-profit Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, they released a joint statement which read, "After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage. Over the last 27 years, we have raised three incredible children and built a foundation that works all over the world to enable people to lead healthy, productive lives." The couple had reportedly said in a joint petition for dissolution of marriage filed in King County Superior Court in Seattle (United States) that "The marriage is irretrievably broken."

Their statement added, "We continue to share a belief in that mission and will continue our work together at the foundation, but 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." The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which was launched in 2000, 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 by the end of 2019.