![]() ![]() Bill and Melinda’s relationship began as an office romance, with Bill as the boss and Melinda as the younger employee whom he flirted with at a conference before asking her out in the company parking lot. None of it was entirely shocking, despite the seeming contrast with his public persona. The former employee who signed an NDA called him “unrelenting” and “condescending,” adding, “He would ask you a question, and when you answered, he’d look at you and go, ‘That is NOT the right answer.’”įor years there have been whispers, within Microsoft and in Gates’s broader professional and social circles, about inappropriate extramarital relationships. A former partner who worked directly with Gates at Microsoft on some major product announcements explained that if a deadline was missed, the party responsible would answer directly to Gates. Like most tech company leaders, the employee explained, Gates was often impatient and demanding-behavior that was commonplace given the rapid speed of the industry, the fierce jockeying for leadership roles, and the market fluctuations, wherein the biggest tech companies in the world can gain or lose billions in market value in a single day. “And these are not nice lawyers,” they added. The current wave of reporting around Gates’s behavior encouraged this person to open up, but they are keenly aware that Gates has lawyers at the ready. You can’t talk,’” said the former employee, who signed such an agreement. “For such a long time you were told, ‘You have an NDA. They have been largely suppressed by Gates’s liberal use of nondisclosure agreements, ostensibly to keep more damning details under wraps, this person said. The decades of stories about him being difficult to work with are correct, said one former employee. In the wake of his divorce, however, it has become increasingly clear that there is an undeniable duality to Bill Gates. While Microsoft is not commenting on the news, it may get harder for the tech giant not to address reports of Bill’s conduct, both in the office and outside it, as former employees who put up with what they describe as inappropriate workplace behavior, romantic relationships with subordinates, and the demands of a boss who, for years, was painted as a nerdy tech savior, finally feel free to unburden themselves. Neither Melinda nor anyone at her direction ever hired a private investigator.” A spokesperson for Melinda called the claim “completely false. ![]() According to two people familiar with the situation, someone in Melinda’s circle worked with a private investigator leading up to filing, which these people expect to inform both the public and private case. As the divorce proceeds past initial reports, people who know the couple expect more details to emerge. Bill essentially left the company around 2008, this person said, noting that both Gateses started to focus the majority of their time on their charitable foundation.īut all that could be about to change. According to one current Microsoft employee, the news has had very little-if any-effect on the day-to-day operations at Microsoft. There has been no formal discussion of the split: no company-wide or internal team meetings, no mass emails-at least not yet. Inside Microsoft, however, things have been eerily hush-hush. Just about every mainstream outlet has published details. Pockets of people around Silicon Valley, in Florida horse country, and across New York City have privately pored over the news for weeks. Bill and Melinda French Gates’s divorce after a 27-year marriage and a storied partnership instantly became the stuff of tabloid legend, complete with splashy headlines, paparazzi shots, and feverish speculation. ![]()
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