She’s a computer nerd turned stay-at-home mum; a devout Catholic who took the contraceptive pill to Africa. In a deeply honest interview, Melinda Gates talks to Juliet Rieden about her need to give back, and the dark secret that haunted her for decades.
Melinda French had been working at Microsoft for just four months when her boss asked her out on a date. This was the whip-smart Bill Gates, CEO of the company, and his snappy chat-up line after they had struck up a conversation in the office car park, was, “Would you go out with me two weeks from Friday night?”
Melinda is still laughing as she recalls that moment in 1987. “I was a young girl, I didn’t know what my calendar was going to be two weeks from Friday night. I did tease him and said, ‘That’s not really quite spontaneous enough for me.’ So, he asked me for my phone number and I gave it to him… an hour later he called me at my apartment, and said, ‘Well, how about tonight?’” That was more like it. The date ended up being a late-night drink, since Bill had two other appointments on his schedule that evening – he wasn’t faking it, he really was a busy man – but it sparked a union that has moved mountains.
Today Bill and Melinda Gates are in the top 10 most powerful people in the world, not just because of the fortune they made from Microsoft, but because of the billions they choose to giveaway in a bid to fix the world’s biggest issue – poverty. It’s a towering aspiration and as I later discover, the need to give back was a major part of what brought these two computer nerds together.
Dating the boss
Melinda was raised in Dallas, Texas, the second of four children born to Apollo programme aerospace engineer Raymond French and homemaker Elaine. She says she was lucky to have great role models in the progressive nuns who introduced a computer into her school early on, giving her a jump-start into a world that was to become her passion.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der May 2019-Ausgabe von Australian Women’s Weekly NZ.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der May 2019-Ausgabe von Australian Women’s Weekly NZ.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
PRETTY WOMAN
Dial up the joy with a mood-boosting self-care session done in the privacy of your own home. It’s a blissful way to banish the winter blues.
Hitting a nerve
Regulating the vagus nerve with its links to depression, anxiety, arthritis and diabetes could aid physical and mental wellbeing.
The unseen Rovals
Candid, behind the scenes and neverbefore-seen images of the royal family have been released for a new exhibition.
Great read
In novels and life - there's power in the words left unsaid.
Winter dinner winners
Looking for some thrifty inspiration for weeknight dinners? Try our tasty line-up of budget-concious recipes that are bound to please everyone at the table.
Winter baking with apples and pears
Celebrate the season of apples and pears with these sweet bakes that will keep the cold weather blues away.
The wines and lines mums
Once only associated with glamorous A-listers, cocaine is now prevalent with the soccer-mum set - as likely to be imbibed at a school fundraiser as a nightclub. The Weekly looks inside this illegal, addictive, rising trend.
Former ballerina'sBATTLE with BODY IMAGE
Auckland author Sacha Jones reveals how dancing led her to develop an eating disorder and why she's now on a mission to educate other women.
MEET RUSSIA'S BRAVEST WOMEN
When Alexei Navalny died in a brutal Arctic prison, Vladimir Putin thought he had triumphed over his most formidable opponent. Until three courageous women - Alexei's mother, wife and daughter - took up his fight for freedom.
IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO START
Responsible for keeping the likes of Jane Fonda and Jamie Lee Curtis in shape, Malin Svensson is on a mission to motivate those in midlife to move more.
