Melinda French Gates responds to ex-husband Bill Gates calling their divorce a ‘mistake’

It’s onwards and upwards for Melinda French Gates.

During an interview with Elle, the 60-year-old philanthropist was asked on her thoughts about her ex-husband Bill Gates calling their divorce the “mistake” he regrets most.

“You’ve clearly Googled more than I have,” Melinda told the magazine, reportedly rolling her eyes. “Look, divorces are painful, and it’s not something I would wish on any family.”

“But again, I knew when I got divorced, I would be okay on my own. And I think that was the most important thing,” she added.

In January, the Microsoft co-founder opened up about his divorce from Melinda after 27 years of marriage.

“The divorce thing was miserable for me and Melinda for at least two years,” Bill told The Times of London.

Bill admitted that he had hoped their marriage would be as successful as his parents Bill Sr. and Mary, who lived together for 45 years.

“There is a certain wonderfulness to spending your entire adult life with one person because of the memories and depth of things you have done and having kids together,” the tech billionaire told the outlet.

He said that he would have to put the public divorce “at the top of the list” of his failures throughout his life.

“There are others but none that matter,” the philanthropist added.

The exes met in 1987 during a Microsoft sales meeting when Melinda was a product manager and Bill was the company’s CEO.

After reportedly asking her out on a date in a parking lot, the pair’s romance blossomed and saw them tie the knot on New Year’s Day in 1994.

The pair went on to welcome three kids: Jennifer, 28, Rory, 25, and Phoebe, 22.

“When Melinda and I met, I was fairly successful but not ridiculously successful — that came during the time that we were together,” Bill said in the interview. “So, she saw me through a lot.”

In 2021, the pair announced their divorce after secretly separating the year before, saying they could no longer “grow together as a couple in this next phase of life.”

The following year, Bill admitted that he “caused pain” to his family when “Today” show anchor Savannah Guthrie asked the tech leader if infidelity played a role in the divorce — but didn’t divulge too many details.

That same year, Melinda went on “CBS Mornings” and hinted that her then-husband’s working relationship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was also a factor in their split.

“I did not like that he had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein, no. I made that clear to him,” Melinda said at the time. “He was abhorrent. He was evil personified.”

The exes have since moved on, with Melinda finding love with her entrepreneur boyfriend, Philip Vaughn.

Bill, for his part, started dating Paula Hurd, a former tech executive at NCR Global and widow of Oracle CEO Mark Hurd, in 2023.