The scandal that followed the shock split: how Bill Gates' reputation is crumbling

Over the years they’ve made much of how they fell in love at work. He flirted with her at a conference and asked her out after bumping into her in the office parking lot. She was attracted to his brain and the fact he wanted to make the world a better place.

They went on to become one of the most solid couples in the world of the uber-rich and super-famous. Which is why, when Melinda Gates announced she was divorcing her husband of 27 years, it was such a shock.

The marriage was “irretrievably broken”, Melinda said. Cue much speculation: they’d drifted apart, the kids had grown up, they didn’t have as much in common anymore.