Chinese Interpreter Denies Splitting Up Bill and Melinda Gates

Zhe 'Shelly' Wang

Here is some no-hard evidence speculation on the Gates breakup that it involves a Chinese translator.

The deep dive speculation on Twitter is this:

What are the odds the translator is a Chinese agent? If she has family in China, especially parents, I'd say close to 100%.

The Chinese interpreter who has done work for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation at the center of the speculation has come forward to deny wild online rumors that she was responsible for the split between Bill and Melinda Gates, reports The Daily Mail.

Zhe 'Shelly' Wang, 36, spoke out in a post on Weibo, the Chinese social media site, on Wednesday, slamming the 'unfounded rumors' that she had conducted an affair with Bill Gates.

'I originally thought [the rumor] would be self-defeating from groundless sources, but I didn't expect it to get more crazy,' she wrote in Mandarin. 'Thank you for your concern over the past 24 hours through private messages, and friends who helped me dispel rumors.'

Wang, who lives in Seattle and is unmarried, is an accomplished professional translator who has done work for the Yale School of Management and Harvard Business School, as well as the Gates Foundation.

Wang wrote on Weibo: 

I originally thought it would be self-defeating from groundless sources, but I didn't expect it to get more crazy. How many books can you read during the May 1st holiday? Why waste time on unfounded rumors. Thank you for your concern over the past 24 hours through private messages, and friends who helped me dispel rumors. I hope that this incident will not ruin the good mood of the holiday. Finally, I would like to thank Mr. Li Donglei for his article. No melon, don't cue.

 Wang grew up in the Chinese port city of Guangzhou, and later immigrated to the United States.

On LinkedIn, she's received multiple endorsements for Chinese, Spanish, French, German and Japanese translation ability.

 -RW

(ht Micah Armantrout)