AS Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates and his wife of 27 years part ways, surprising aspects of their long marriage have emerged, including the fact he had an agreement allowing him to go on regular holidays with his ex-girlfriend - a revelation that sent social media into overdrive.
That’s friendly?
The revelation sparked online discourse over whether or not it is a good idea for a relationship when one partner goes on holiday with an old flame as Bill, 65, seems to have done with his ex partner, software entrepreneur, Ann Winblad.
They went away a lot?
According to a profile in Time magazine in 1997, it was a negotiated consideration ahead of Gates’ marriage to Melinda French that he and his ex Ann would be able to spend time together. Before the Gates nuptials in Hawaii in 1994, it was settled that he and his former love could jet off on an annual weekend getaway to pick each other’s brains.
They played putt-putt?
As per the agreement, Gates and Winblad holidayed annually at her beach cottage in North Carolina, where they rode dune buggies, hang-glided and went for walks. Gates said: “We can play putt-putt while discussing biotechnology.”
He asked her approval to wed?
So the interview revealed. Winblad and Gates split up in 1987 after a few years together, but he told Time: “When I was off on my own thinking about marrying Melinda, I called Ann and asked for her approval." Winblad gave it, saying Melinda would be “a good match for him because she had intellectual stamina”.
Now?
The Gates marriage is over and the task of untangling the estimated $124 billion spoils of the Microsoft empire underway. The pair met when Melinda joined the firm in 1987 as a product manager, going on to become one of the world's most famous couples, creating the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation along the way, a non-profit organisation campaigning against global inequity, poverty and disease.
“Consciously uncoupling”?
The phrase actress Gwyneth Paltrow used to describe the end of her marriage to Coldplay frontman, Chris Martin, lives long in the memory and as it happens, Paltrow - now remarried to American TV writer Brad Falchuk - has also gone on holiday with her new husband, her musician ex and his partner, actress Dakota Johnson, as a foursome, along with Paltrow and Martin’s two teenage children. Paltrow has said Martin remains a "close friend" whom she sees and speaks to every day.
The Yorks?
Prince Andrew and Sarah, Duchess of York, proved they remain friendly exes too when they holidayed together in Spain in 2019.
But Alan Clark took it to extremes?
The late Tory MP Alan Clark was renowned as a serial philanderer. He didn’t go on holiday with an ex, but the politician, who died in 1999, memorably took his Italian girlfriend with him on his honeymoon with beleaguered wife Jane.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here