Bill and Melinda Gates to divorce

Bill and Melinda Gates, two of the world's richest people, announced on Monday they are divorcing after 27 years of marriage, saying they can no longer "grow together as a couple".

"After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage," they said in a statement posted to Twitter.

"Over the last 27 years, we have raised three incredible children and built a foundation that works all over the world to enable all people to lead healthy, productive lives."

In requesting privacy for the family, they added: "We continue to share a belief in that mission and will continue our work together at the foundation, but we no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in the next phase of our lives."

Their announcement follows the recent divorce of Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder, and his longtime wife, MacKenzie Scott.

The 65-year-old Gates, who co-founded Microsoft, still owns roughly 1.3 percent of Microsoft shares, according to Bloomberg. He is the fourth-wealthiest person in the world, according to Forbes, with $124 billion.

Melinda Gates, 56, has become an outspoken advocate on global health and equality for women.

The statement said that they will continue to work together at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which they founded in 2000 and has an endowment of $50 billion.

The private philanthropic organization with about 1,600 employees gives roughly $5 billion annually for research and advocacy to improve global health, combat climate change and bolster US education. Over the past year, their foundation has spent more than $1 billion to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Since the Gates Foundation is a family foundation and the Gateses are breaking apart their family, the divorce may have huge repercussions for the foundation and for its work across the globe," Rob Reich, a professor of political science at Stanford University, told The New York Times.

Melinda joined Microsoft as a product manager in 1987, and the two sat together at a business dinner that year in New York. They began dating, but as Bill told a Netflix documentary: "We cared a lot for each other, and there were only two possibilities: either, we were going to break up or we were going to get married."

Melinda said she found Bill－methodical even in matters of the heart－writing a list on a white-board with the "pros and the cons of getting married".

They got married in 1994 on the Hawaiian island of Lanair.

Agencies contributed to this story.