Melinda Gates Reveals She Secretly Separated From Bill Gates Before Their 'Hard' and 'Painful' Divorce

Melinda French Gates revealed her May 2021 divorce wasn't a surprise for her in a new interview.

While talking to TIME in an interview published on Tuesday, June 18, she got candid about navigating the end of her marriage to the Bill Gates , 68.

"It gave us the privacy to do what needed to be done in private," she told the outlet, adding they had been living separately since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic . "You know, I separated first before I made the full decision about a divorce. And to be able to do that in private while I’m still trying to take care of the kids, while still making certain decisions about how you’re going to disentangle your life — thank God.”

Though the divorce was "hard" and "painful," she feels better than ever in this time in her life. “I live in a neighborhood. Now I can walk to little stores. I can walk to the drugstore, I can walk to a restaurant,” she said of her new home and area. “I absolutely love it.”

In August, Melinda will turn 60 — and she's thrilled for what the future holds .

“I feel like, ‘Wow, I’m 60. I better surround myself with people and still travel [so that] I’m still absolutely learning, because the world is moving, the world is changing,’" she explained. “I’m totally unencumbered to work in any way I want.”

Melinda previously discussed what it was like to go through a breakup. In 2022, she spoke to Fortune magazine about navigating her new normal.

"I had some reasons I just couldn't stay in that marriage anymore," she spilled. "But the odd thing about COVID is that it gave me the privacy to do what I needed to do."

She added, "It's unbelievably painful, in innumerable ways, but I had the privacy to get through it."

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Melinda previously admitted she and Bill are on good terms , especially since they started The Gates Foundation together in 2000.

"Certainly, I wish him well — I don't wish him harm," she said at the time. "And I think we have a productive working relationship, and I think that will continue."