Bill Gates resigned from the Microsoft board after allegations surfaced that the company co-founder had an inappropriate, years-long sexual relationship with an employee, the Wall Street Journal reported late Sunday.
The board, according to the Journal, “decided that Bill Gates needed to step down from its board in 2020 as they pursued an investigation into the billionaire’s prior romantic relationship with a female Microsoft employee that was deemed inappropriate.”
At the time of his resignations from both the Microsoft and Berkshire Hathaway boards in March of 2020, Gates said he wanted to devote more time to his work through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
In the letter posted on LinkedIn, Gates, 64, wrote that he wanted “to dedicate more time to philanthropic priorities including global health and development, education, and my increasing engagement in tackling climate change. The leadership at the Berkshire companies and Microsoft has never been stronger, so the time is right to take this step.”
But slightly more than one year later on May 2, 2021, he and his wife of 27 years, Melinda, shocked the philanthropy and tech worlds when they announced on Twitter that they were ending their marriage.
Since then, speculation has swirled about the potential causes of the breakup, who will get what when assets are split, and what will happen to the foundation.
Here’s a statement from a Microsoft spokesperson, shared with GeekWire: “Microsoft received a concern in the latter half of 2019 that Bill Gates sought to initiate an intimate relationship with a company employee in the year 2000. A committee of the Board reviewed the concern, aided by an outside law firm, to conduct a thorough investigation. Throughout the investigation, Microsoft provided extensive support to the employee who raised the concern.”
The same day the Journal posted the story about the board investigation, the New York Times published additional details critical about Bill Gates’ professional behavior including inappropriate behavior toward female employees.
According to the Times, “…Bill Gates had also developed a reputation for questionable conduct in work-related settings….On at least a few occasions, Mr. Gates pursued women who worked for him at Microsoft and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, according to people with direct knowledge of his overtures.”
Even though the Gateses announced plans to divorce two weeks ago, the couple has been rumored to be meeting with attorneys since 2019 to begin hashing out the details required to split more than $130 billion in assets and fund the world’s largest foundation.
A spokesperson for Gateses denied that the board resignations have anything to do with the affair which occurred in 2000 and ended without issue. “There was an affair almost 20 years ago which ended amicably,” the spokesperson said to the Journal.
Update: A spokesperson for Gates told GeekWire that “we stand by the statements given to the NYT and WSJ.” Here are those full statements:
Statement to WSJ: “There was an affair almost 20 years ago which ended amicably. Bill’s decision to transition off the board was in no way related to this matter. In fact, he had expressed an interest in spending more time on his philanthropy starting several years earlier.”
Statement to NYT: “It is extremely disappointing that there have been so many untruths published about the cause, the circumstances and the timeline of Bill Gates’ divorce. Your characterization of his meetings with Epstein and others about philanthropy is inaccurate, including who participated. Similarly, any claim that Gates spoke of his marriage or Melinda in a disparaging manner is false. The claim of mistreatment of employees is also false. The rumors and speculation surrounding Gates’ divorce are becoming increasingly absurd and it’s unfortunate that people who have little to no knowledge of the situation are being characterized as ‘sources.'”
