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Melinda Gates has reportedly been dating a former Fox News reporter for months, according to TMZ.
Melinda, 58, philanthropist and ex-wife of billionaire Bill Gates, was spotted with Jon Du Pre at a Brooklyn Nets basketball game in April earlier this year.
They pair have been dating for months, sources told TMZ.
Melinda and her now-ex husband Bill, 66, announced in 2021 that they were ending their marriage after 27 years.
Du Pre was a TV correspondent for Fox News Channel in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He’s now a Strategic Communications Specialist, according to his LinkedIn profile.
It’s not clear how Melinda and Du Pre met. But TMZ reports they have also been spotted, along with other family members, at Pelican Hill — a 5-star hotel in Newport Beach, California.
Melinda Gates, 58, has reportedly been dating former Fox News reporter Jon Du Pre for months, according to TMZ. The pair were spotted at a Brooklyn Nets game in April (pictured)
The philanthropist and her ex-husband billionaire Bill Gates divorced in 2021 after 27 years
Jon Du Pre was a correspondent for Fox News Channel in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He’s now a Strategic Communications Specialist, according to his LinkedIn profile
Last month, Gates opened up about her ‘unbelievably painful’ divorce from the Microsoft billionaire, explaining that she ‘just couldn’t stay in that marriage anymore’, while sharing her struggle to continue working alongside her former spouse even as they were in the midst of splitting up.
She told Fortune magazine in a recent interview that the COVID-19 pandemic helped give her the ‘privacy to do what she needed to do.’
‘I had some reasons I just couldn’t stay in that marriage anymore,’ she explained. ‘But the odd thing about COVID is that it gave me the privacy to do what I needed to do.
‘It’s unbelievably painful, in innumerable ways, but I had the privacy to get through it.’
While they were together, the pair welcomed three children over the years – Jennifer, 25, Rory, 23, and Phoebe, 19.
They also founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation together in 2000, and even after going their separate ways, the former couple continued to run the foundation together – which Melinda said helped her get through it.
Melinda, 58, and Bill (pictured in 2010), 66, tied the knot in 1994 and were together for 27 years before they announced that their marriage was ending in May 2021
She called the divorce ‘unbelievably painful, in innumerable ways,’ but added that that her ‘main concern’ was ‘protecting her kids.’ The family is pictured in 2019
Melinda previously told Good Morning America that her and ex-husband’s ‘philanthropy’ helped them get through their split, claiming that it ‘held them together, allowed more grace’ and ‘smoothed’ things over during some of the most ‘difficult’ aspects of the breakup.
Melinda, who worked as the general manager of information products at Microsoft until 1996, when she left the company to focus on starting her family, met Bill at a trade fair in New York, and they became husband and wife in 1994.
Ten years into their marriage, rumors began to circulate that Bill was having an affair with a Microsoft staffer.
However, according to Melinda, that had nothing to do with why they decided to divorce.
‘I certainly believe in forgiveness, so I thought we had worked through some of that,’ she told CBS Mornings in March.
‘I gave every single piece of myself to this marriage. I was committed from the day we got engaged to the day I got out of it.
‘It wasn’t one moment or one specific thing that happened. There just came a point in time where there was enough there that I realized it just wasn’t healthy, and I couldn’t trust what we had.’
During the interview, Melinda also slammed Bill for his questionable friendship with pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and revealed that he continued to meet with him despite her having ‘nightmares’ about him.
Melinda previously slammed Bill for his questionable friendship with pedophile Jeffrey Epstein during an interview with CBS Mornings (pictured)
‘I did not like that he had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein. I made that clear to him,’ she said. ‘I made it very clear how I felt about him.’ The exes are seen at their wedding
‘I did not like that he had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein. I made that clear to him,’ she said, adding that she met Epstein one time because she ‘wanted to see who he was.’
‘I regretted it from the second I stepped in the door,’ she continued. ‘He was abhorrent, evil personified. I had nightmares about it afterwards.
‘Any of the questions remaining about what Bill’s relationship with him was… those are for Bill to answer. I made it very clear how I felt about him.’
Bill called his meetings with Epstein a ‘huge’ mistake in a statement to CBS. He said: Meeting with Epstein was a mistake that I regret deeply. It was a substantial error in judgement.’
When asked about his previous infidelity back in May, the business mogul told Today, ‘I certainly made mistakes, and I take responsibility.
‘I don’t think delving into the particulars at this point is constructive, but yes, I caused pain and I feel terrible about that. I have responsibility for causing a lot of pain to my family.’
He added of their split: ‘The divorce is definitely a sad thing. It was a tough year. I feel good that all of us are moving forward now.
‘Melinda and I are continuing to work together. It was sad and tragic, but now we’re moving together.’
Aside from continuing to work on their foundation together, the exes also seem to be co-parenting well, as they reunited to walk daughter Jennifer down the aisle at her wedding to Nayel Nassar in October 2021.
They put their differences aside for the magical day, with both of them standing together with their daughter as they brought her up to the alter. They were also seen exiting the ceremony together.
The exes also seem to be co-parenting well, as they reunited to walk daughter Jennifer down the aisle at her wedding to Nayel Nassar in October 2021 (pictured)
Both of them stood together with their daughter as they brought her up to the alter, and they were also seen exiting the ceremony together
The couple owned homes in five different states, but their main family home was a 66,000-square-foot house in Washington estimated to be worth $125 million (pictured)
After their divorce, the pair reportedly split their joint $130 billion net worth, but it has not been made public how exactly they divided their many assets and large fortune.
The couple owned homes in five different states, a fleet of cars including a rare $2 million Porsche, an art collection that includes a $30 million book of writings and sketches by Leonardo Da Vinci, and a series of private jets.
The Gates had a string of luxury mansions across the US – including Florida, California, and Wyoming – but their main family home was in Washington, near the Gates Foundation headquarters.
Melinda and Bill purchased the sprawling, 66,000-square-foot house for $2 million in 1988, but put in $63 million more in redesigning it. It is now worth an estimated $125 million.
The estate boasts a five-acre plot, an indoor-outdoor pool with an underwater music system and fossil designs on the floor, an artificial stream stocked with salmon and trout, and a beach with sand imported, according to some, from the Caribbean.
Inside the seven-bedroom mansion, with a reported 18 bathrooms, is an art deco home cinema with seating for 20, a 2,100-square-foot library (which includes two secret pivoting bookcases and a bar), and a 2,300 square-foot reception hall that can seat a whopping 150 people for dinner.
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