Bill Gates has given his soon-to-be ex-wife Melinda nearly $3 billion since they started their divorce proceedings, news report.

Melinda Gates received $850 million worth of shares in the landscaping company John Deere from her estranged husband, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft. This is on top of the other publically disclosed transfers of wealth, such as shares in firms such as Cola-Cola supplier and Canadian railway company AutoNation.

This news came from the investment firm Cascade, who declined to give any further comment to the Wall Street Journal, which first broke the news.

The amount shared with Melinda Gates is a tiny portion of the money made over the duration of their marriage. According to Forbes, Bill Gates is worth more than $125 billion.

Their divorce comes after 27 years of marriage, during which they had three children and worked together on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a global charitable initiative with many aims. One of them was to help in funding and disseminating vaccines in the fight against COVID-19, which have been vital in defeating the virus and getting back to normal life.

On 7 May, an investigation by The Daily Beast alleged that Mr Gates had discussed his “toxic” relationship with Jeffery Epstein, the disgraced financier convicted of sex trafficking underage girls.

An anonymous source told the outlet that “going to Jeffrey’s was a respite from his marriage. It was  a way of getting away from Melinda.”

Mr Gates’ representative denied this and said, “Your characterization of these meetings with Epstein and others about philanthropy are inaccurate, including who participated.”

He continued, “Any claim that Gates spoke of his marriage or Melinda is a disparaging manner is false.”

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