Last year, Melinda and Bill Gates announced they were divorcing after being married for 27 years.
The Microsoft mogul subsequently confessed to infidelity during the marriage.
In a new interview with Fortune, she explains why she simply couldn’t remain married.
“I had some reasons I just couldn’t stay in that marriage anymore,” Melinda French Gates explained. “But the odd thing about COVID is that it gave me the privacy to do what I needed to do.”
She also reflected on the pain she experienced during the course of her marriage.
“It’s unbelievably painful, in innumerable ways, but I had the privacy to get through it,” she continued.
She also discussed how the reserves of inner strength she discovered while in the process of divorcing, particularly while they worked together on their joint charity, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
READ MORE: Melinda Gates Opens Up About Divorce From Bill Gates: ‘I Had A Lot of Tears For Many Days’
“I kept working with the person I was moving away from, and I needed to show up and be my best self every single day. So even though I might be crying at 9 a.m. and then have to be on a video conference at 10 a.m. with the person I’m leaving, I have to show up and be my best,” she said.
“I learned as a leader that I could do it. It reminded me that the foundation calls me to be my best,” French Gates added.
