The Curious Case of the Melinda Gates Divorce PR Campaign

People do strange things when they have so much money they don't know how to spend it all.

Sometimes they hire public relations specialists to spin their divorce. 

It appears that Melinda Gates has such specialists on retainer.

I reported last week on a long story out of The Daily Beast which claimed that Melinda was long upset about Bill's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

I commented at the time:

Most interesting it appears that the story is being sourced by people in Melinda's camp. So you have to wonder if she wants this out and why. 

Now, we have a similar story being pushed by The Wall Street Journal:

The split between Bill and Melinda Gates, announced last week, has been in the works for a long time.

Ms. Gates consulted with divorce lawyers roughly two years before she filed for divorce from Mr. Gates, saying their marriage was “irretrievably broken,” according to people familiar with the matter and documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The 56-year-old philanthropist has been working with lawyers at several firms since at least 2019 to unwind the marriage of more than 25 years, according to these people and the documents...

The couple hasn’t said what prompted the split. One source of concern for Ms. Gates was her husband’s dealings with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to the people and a former employee of their charity, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Ms. Gates’s concerns about the relationship dated as far back as 2013, the former employee said.

This sure looks like it is coming out of Melinda's camp. The spin team is on the job. There is no way that Bill would want the world to think that their divorce is at least partly because of his relationship with Jeffery Epstein.

And so the question remains that I asked in the original post:

 Is this simply a hell hath no fury moment or is there another reason for the leak?

Either Melinda is furious at Bill for some unknown reason and wants to damage him publicly or she is really scared about what is going to come out about Bill and his relationship with Epstein and she wants to get ahead of the story before it is public.

I suspect the latter. Something may be brewing that is not going to put Bill in a good light at all and Melinda is making sure it is out in the public square that she has been plotting an escape the moment she learned what Bill was up to with Epstein.  

 -RW