Melinda French Gates is Moving On

THE FAMED PHILANTHROPIST IS OPENING UP ABOUT LEARNING FROM BOTH JOY AND HEARTACHE, ENDING HER 27-YEAR MARRIAGE TO BILLIONAIRE BILL GATES AND FINDING THE ‘COURAGE’ TO START OVER AGAIN

- By MARIA PASQUINI

Melinda French Gates has a quick, considered answer for almost everything when she sits down with People—and then it’s time to discuss her divorce from Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates. Asked about her response to “betrayals” in her marriage, which she recounts in the new book The Next Day, Melinda takes a long pause before replying: “You have to stay true to yourself always, right?”

That’s one of the lessons she’s now ready to share as she opens up about her life’s most transformative moments. The philanthropist is detailing how she decided to leave one of the world’s richest men, yes, but also alot more. “I’m not trying to give advice to anybody,” says Melinda, cognizant of her own “absurd” privilege. But at 60, she’s been through a lot: the journey of raising three children, the death of a dear friend, the end of a 34-year relationship and the start of a new chapter (and new romance) while spending billions in support of women and girls everywhere.

“It takes courage forging a different life,” she says. “When you change paths, you realize, oh, it’s a big opening.” Or as she writes on page one of The Next Day: “There’s a lot that’s happened in my life over the last few years that I didn’t see coming.”

Into the Light If she had known in her darkest days what she knows now, Melinda (photographed in New York City on March 4) would have told herself: "You're going to be more than fine."