Bill Gates Transfers Nearly $2 BILLION In Stocks To Melinda - But His Family Is Still Angry Over Divorce!

This is the kind of high-stakes separation consequences that we just can’t wrap our heads around…

As we’ve been reporting, Bill and Melinda Gates recently announced their divorce, and it’s going to be a verrrrrry expensive one. As it turns out, the fourth-richest man in the world didn’t have a prenuptial agreement, but the couple did have a “separation document” that is supposed to sort out how they divide their many, many assets.

E! News obtained SEC filings that reveal just a taste of how that division is playing out, and the sum totals are making our heads spin. According to the outlet, the same day that Melinda officially filed for divorce, her ex-husband transferred her a HUGE amount of stock shares. The transfer included more than 14 million shares of the Canadian National Railway Company, as well as 2.9 million shares of AutoNation — totaling more than 1.8 BILLION dollars in stock. Jaw dropping!

Of course, the Microsoft co-founder is currently worth an estimated $130.4 billion, so that amount is a mere drop in the ocean for him. Can you imagine?!?

As TMZ pointed out, the ginormous stock transfer occurring on the same day as the divorce filing proves that the split and settlement has been in the works for some time now. In fact, sources for the outlet revealed that the divorce news has been coming for months, and The Gates Foundation co-founders actually planned to announce it back in March.

Apparently, Melinda had rented a private island in the Caribbean (Calivigny Island in Grenada, at a reported $132,000 a night) for her, her children, and their significant others to escape to, so that none of them could be reached by the media when the divorce was announced. Unfortunately, the settlement was still tied up with the lawyers at the time, so the announcement was delayed (though she still took the trip in March, according to the outlet).

The juicer info is that the Gates patriarch wasn’t invited along on the trip because of a “a considerable amount of acrimony” amid the breakup and “virtually everyone in the family took Melinda’s side.” Per TMZ, Melinda and other family members “were furious at Bill for various things they claim he had done.” (Maybe they’re mad that the influential philanthropist is against sharing vaccine tech with poor countries? JK…)

Some parts of this divorce sound familiar — kids taking sides, lawyers bickering over the particulars — but escaping to private islands and billion-dollar stock transfers is about the most unrelatable thing we’ve ever heard of. We wonder what Bill did to turn his family against him, though? We’re VERY curious to see how all this plays out!

[Image via Rocky/WENN/Daniel Deme]