Bill Gates said that he “made mistakes” and “takes responsibility” when reflecting to NBC News’ “Today” on Tuesday about the breakup of his marriage to Melinda one year ago.
"The divorce is definitely a sad thing," the billionaire Microsoft co-founder said. "I have responsibility for causing a lot of pain to my family. It was a tough year. I feel good that all of us are moving forward now."
Asked if he had ever been unfaithful in his marriage, as has been reported in the past year, Gates said, "I certainly made mistakes, and I take responsibility,” although he did not give more details about what he meant, only adding that "I don’t think delving into the particulars at this point is constructive, but yes, I caused pain, and I feel terrible about that."
Gates reacted to remarks Melinda had given in an interview that during their breakup, saying she had "a lot of tears for many days," lying on the floor thinking, "How can I get up? How am I going to move forward?"
Bill Gates acknowledged that "this was a very tough thing. We had a lot of amazing things in our marriage. The kids, the foundation, the enjoyment we had. And so it's a very hard adjustment," adding that "I know divorces are different, but it's just a complete change. We were partners, we kind of grew up together, and now that's different. We're not married."
Gates also reflected on what he learned.
"There’s areas like climate or health where I have expertise, [but] on personal matters like this, I don’t think of myself as an expert," he said. "I should be very humble about success has a tricky aspect to it, so I don’t have great advice for other people."
Gates also discussed his new book, “How to Prevent the Next Pandemic,” which discusses what should be done now to prepare for the next such situation using lessons from COVID-19.
"I don't want us to wait until we forget about how awful this has been," he said. "We've had tens of millions of deaths, trillions of dollars of economic loss, education loss, depression, and with a few key steps. We can make sure this won't happen again."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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