Settlement: $76B
Cost/Day: $7.5M
The biggest divorce settlement in history.
Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and one of the world's wealthiest individuals, met Melinda French in 1987 when she joined the company as a product manager. Despite an obvious power imbalance, the two built a genuine partnership. They married on January 1, 1994, in a private ceremony in Lanai, Hawaii. Together, they raised three children and became arguably the most influential philanthropic duo in history.
From 1994 to the early 2000s, Bill and Melinda publicly complemented each other — she softened his image while he provided global reach for her humanitarian ideals. In 2000, they co-founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which grew into the largest private charitable foundation in the world. For nearly three decades, they appeared to be a model of partnership. Then, on May 3, 2021, the couple announced their divorce, sending shockwaves through both the business and philanthropic worlds.
The settlement was finalized in August 2021. Melinda walked away with an estimated $76 billion in assets — stocks in Canadian National Railway, AutoNation, and other major holdings were transferred in the days following the announcement. Because Washington State is a community property state, assets accumulated during the marriage are generally split equally. Washington law, combined with the sheer scale of the Gates fortune (estimated at over $130 billion at the time), made this one of the largest divorce settlements ever recorded.
Both remained co-chairs of the Gates Foundation initially, but in June 2024 Melinda resigned from the foundation entirely, receiving an additional $12.5 billion to pursue her own philanthropic vision. She subsequently launched Pivotal Ventures and made substantial independent donations focused on women's rights and reproductive health — areas where she and Bill had reportedly disagreed.
The Gates divorce dwarfs most high-profile splits. Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott's 2019 divorce saw MacKenzie receive around $38 billion — roughly half of what Melinda received. Rupert Murdoch's divorce from Anna Murdoch cost an estimated $1.7 billion. By any measure, the Gates settlement stands as a landmark in the history of matrimonial law and wealth transfer.
The couple had no prenuptial agreement — a remarkable fact given Bill's status as one of the richest men alive at the time of their marriage. This decision, which may have reflected genuine trust between them, ultimately ensured that Melinda received one of the largest divorce settlements in history.