Divorces happen but lets end the break-up blame game – The Times of India Blog

When #DivorceGate(s) trended globally for a few brief hours last week, the world forgot all about Covid. The biggest newsbreak did not involve the latest virus variant, it was about a billion-dollar divorce involving a couple everyone knows Bill and Melinda Gates like they are our famous neighbours or something. Thats the thing about celebrity hookups, breakups, marriages, babies and divorce everybody behaves like its their own family ka mamla. Bill and Melinda ki shaadi is off but theres always Sima Aunty, Indian Matchmaking ishtyle. Sima Aunty, give Bill the magic formula tell him he has to adjust and compromise.

The Microsoft founder (billed the worlds fourth richest man) may have stepped down from the Board last year, but theres still $145 billion lying around in small change which will be carved up between him and Melinda. Not exactly chana-sing-dana. But heres the thing its their wealth thats being discussed far more than the heartbreak of a 27-year-old marriage going phut. Every auntyji has a theory. Its the familiar paisa ya pyaar story. Chachas and chachis are looking for the other woman angle and ummmm there are a few significant Chinese whispers doing the rounds. No matter how lofty and above it all, people pretend to be, sniffing, Please, its their personal matter. None of our business, the same ears prick up when a new salacious Gates ki Kahani starts circulating on social media. Big business in India is getting jittery: Yaar, that Jeff Bezos set the trend by divorcing. If the worlds richest men cant make their wives happy hamara kya chance hai? Then we have the meme factory. You must have seen the one from Mian Asad Saleem featuring the haggard but still super dishy Pakistanis Prime Minister Imran Khan which said, The alimony settlement is bigger than Pakistans budget. Our last hope is the PM seducing Melinda Gates. This is destiny manifest. Do your thing my king. Bring home the bag. We cannot repay the IMF.

No fault: Most memes target Melinda, some showing her lying in a tub covered in dollar bills

It goes without saying that most memes target Melinda, some showing her lying in a tub, covered in dollar bills, and working the phones to set up dates. Bill is treated with a little more reverence but hes getting it in the neck, too. One meme has him swiping right on Tinder, while another features images from Bill Gates Insta account on his 25th wedding anniversary where he wishes Melinda and writes, I cant wait to spend 25 more years laughing together. Arrey! Phir kya hua? Maybe he was working from home someone joked.

Agreed, this is less about divorce and more about the staggering wealth involved. When Amazon-wala Jeff Bezos divorced Mackenzie Scott (2019), she became the worlds fourth richest woman after getting a whopping $38 billion settlement, and then promptly gave a whole chunk of it away.Eventually, celebrity divorces boil down to the moolah who gets how much? Was there a pre-nup? What happens to the children? Do the kids get inheritance after the parents split up? What about the homes? Bill and Melinda live in a 66,000 sq ft mansion and are supposedly the largest landowners in America. As co-chairs and trustees of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (the third trustee is 90-year-old Warren Buffet), there is a lot at stake besides dividing up the family silver.

While these two figure out what to do with their zillions, gossip mills across seven seas are in overdrive. Salacious details are awaited as readers pore over Melindas 2019 book, titled The Moment of Lift, in search of clues. Was she hinting at trouble in paradise when she wrote, He (a man, not necessarily Bill) has to learn how to be an equal. Was that her way of letting the world know the Gates were about to shut on her happiness? When did the Gates of Heaven become the Gates of Hell? And why was Bill smiling in pictures after the politically-perfect divorce announcement? Are the Worlds Richest Men about to launch a Billionaires Divorce Club? Who will they enlist next? Take a look at this super elite list of divorced big daddies Elon Musk, Bernard Arnault, Larry Ellison, Sergey Brin and Amancio Ortega.

The divorced ladies are getting dissed khaali peeli. Usual noises she must have driven him nuts. Nobody ever says, He was nuts to start with! Remember, it is invariably assumed that its the wives who got dumped for which woman in her right mind would walk away from billions? Why ever not if their marriage is falling apart? Jaaney do, Bill and Melinda must know what they are doing and why. Their lives, their paisa. As the saying goes, everybody loves a good warand a bad divorce!

Views expressed above are the author's own.

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Divorces happen but lets end the break-up blame game - The Times of India Blog