12 divorces and marriage lives of billionaires as Bill and Melinda Gates split

Bill and Melinda Gates announcing their divorce is likely the biggest news going around right now. From emotional reactions to scathing jokes about the life-changing situation that the couple is going through, social media is abuzz with the news. It has brought in mention of other billionaires and their marriage lives.

Here we look at all the publicly available information about the marriages of the top ten richest people. We start with Larry Ellison, why?

While the former Oracle boss is more towards the bottom of the top ten, this 76-year-old money magnate tops the list of ‘number of divorces’. As of 2010, Larry Ellison was already divorced four times. He appears to have given up on marriage after the fourth try.

What use is marriage when you own 98% of Lanai, Hawaii’s sixth-largest island, and practically dictate the lives of 3000 inhabitants? His last wedding to Melanie Craft, a romance novelist, even had former CEO and co-founder of Apple Inc. Steve Jobs as the official photographer.

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Next is the eccentric tech genius and pop culture celebrity Elon Musk. There are only so many words to describe this particular man with. One minute he is making cameo appearances in films and TV series, the next he is sending robots to Mars.

It appears he is not just doing this for attention but because this is who he is. Elon Musk has been divorced three times, two of which were from one woman. He too has remained unmarried but has dated as widely as he has investments.

Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos joined the ‘divorced billionaires club’ in 2021 and 2019 respectively. Both men were married to their first loves and women with who they built their empires. Bezos’ marriage to MacKenzie Scott lasted 26 years while Bill Gates and Melinda Gates were married for 27 years before their shocking divorce.

These two marriages ended in a similar fashion; as amicably as possible without much drama. Although, Scott quickly remarrying a high school chemistry teacher Dan Jewett hinted at an affair while she was still with the world’s richest man.

The list of divorce among the top ten billionaires does not stop here. Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google’s parent company Alphabet, also tasted divorce once when he saw his seven-year-old marriage to Anne Wojcicki end. He has since remarried.

Fashion billionaire Bernard Arnault and former wife Anne Dewavrin terminated their marriage in 1990. What will make a woman divorce a man who owns Christian Dior, Luis Vuitton, and several other hundred notable fashion and luxury brands? Dewavrin never gave the answer publicly, but Arnault immediately remarried the following year.

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Spanish billionaire businessman Amancio Ortega closes off the list of the world’s top ten billionaires that have been divorced at least once. The 85-year-old once terminated a 20-year-old marriage back in 1986 and stayed married for 11 years before remarrying in 2001. He is a very private person and until 1999, there was no photograph of him published publicly.

Larry Page, Warren Buffet and Mark Zuckerberg are the only billionaires in the top ten never to have been divorced.

Warren Buffet, who turns 91 in 2021, lost his wife Susa Thompson in 2004 after 42 years of marriage. He married Astrid Menks in 2006 but they had been living together since 1977 after his wife decided to pursue her singing career. Susan was aware of Menks and her husband’s relationship and allegedly even arranged their meeting, even supporting her being ‘his companion’.

Larry Page, the co-founder of Alphabet, has been married for 14 years while Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan married in 2012 after dating for nine whole years.

With 70% of the world’s top ten richest people having divorced at least once, people have reached the conclusion that money cannot keep a marriage together. Who would have thought?

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