Melinda Gates describes moment she told ‘upset’ Bill she wanted a divorce — and the panic attacks that followed

Melinda Gates vividly remembers telling Bill Gates she wanted to separate.

The philanthropist writes in her forthcoming book, “The Next Day,” that she invited the Microsoft co-founder to New Mexico in February 2020 on a trip she originally planned to take alone.

Upon arrival, Melinda found out that the rental home was only available because the couple who lived there had broken up.

Although she and Bill tried to treat it “like any other vacation,” on the last night of the trip, Melinda told her husband she wanted to start living apart.

At the time, their youngest daughter, Phoebe, was a senior in high school, so Melinda proposed staying in their Seattle home with the teen until she finished school.

“It was one of the scariest conversations I’d have had,” she writes in an excerpt obtained by People on Wednesday, adding that the computer programmer was “sad and upset” but also “understanding and respectful.” 

When the couple returned home, they continued putting on a united front in support of their Gates Foundation. However, Melinda decided it was time to walk away from her 27-year marriage for good.

That summer, the Gateses shared a long and occasionally “tender” chat when Melinda told Bill she wanted a divorce.

“Bill has a reputation for being one of the toughest negotiators in the world,” she writes, reflecting on how hard the coming months would be.

Melinda, 60, also reveals she “started having panic attacks.”

Though the process of finalizing their divorce was “grueling” and long, she writes that everything moved quickly once they reached an agreement.

In May 2021, Bill and Melinda released a joint statement announcing they were divorcing.

The following year, the businesswoman revealed that her ex’s friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein played a role in their split.

In a statement to CBS, the billionaire tech giant, 69, called his relationship with Epstein, who died by suicide in jail in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, a “mistake.”

Melinda also said she could no longer trust Bill after working through an alleged affair he had with a Microsoft employee.