Melinda Gates Cuts To The Heart Of What Caused Her Divorce From Bill

When Bill and Melinda Gates announced their divorce after nearly 30 years of marriage, it sort of felt like learning that our billionaire parents were splitting up. We were surprised and confused. In the former couple's joint statement which they posted to Twitter, they said they would continue to work together on their philanthropic causes, but, "we no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in this next phase of our lives." Then, after this extremely vague announcement, The Washington Post reported that Bill had an affair with an employee more than 20 years ago, but not a ton of additional details. 

Before we pick sides here, we need to hear from everybody involved. First up was Bill, who told Anderson Cooper in a CNN interview that he has a few regrets, and said his association with Jeffrey Epstein was a particularly sore spot. Now we get to hear from Melinda, who appears to be getting a lot more specific in her sit-down interview with Gayle King for "CBS Mornings."

In a preview of Melinda Gates' "CBS Mornings" interview with Gayle King, the billionaire philanthropist breaks down what went wrong in the marriage, starting with the affair 20 years ago. 

When King asked about the infidelity, Melinda said, "Well, I certainly believe in forgiveness, so I thought we had worked through some of that." Unfortunately, it seems like the broken trust never quite healed. "It wasn't one moment or one specific thing that happened," she continued. "There just came a point in time where there was enough there that I realized it wasn't healthy and I couldn't trust what we had."

Melinda got even more personal when talking about the emotions she felt during the breakup than what actually caused it in the first place. "I had a lot of tears for many days," she said. "I mean days where I'm literally laying on the floor ... thinking, 'How can this be? How can I get up? How am I going to move forward?'" Melinda said that there were "days when I certainly was angry," but "that's part of the grieving process." She also shared some good news: After spending a lot of time on her own healing journey, she's excited to look to the future. By the looks of her social media at least, Melinda is keeping busy and staying committed to her causes.