It was alleged that Microsoft (MS) co-founder Bill Gates, who recently announced the divorce, had maintained an improper relationship with a female employee in the company for several years about 20 years ago.



According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 16th (local time), Microsoft's board of directors received a letter in late 2019 from a woman working as a company engineer revealing that she had had a sexual relationship with Bill Gates for several years, starting in 2000.



2019 is a time when Merlinda is known to have hired a lawyer to prepare for divorce in earnest.



The board hired an external law firm to investigate the facts and, accordingly, decided that Bill Gates had to drop the board, the WSJ quoted a source.



In March last year, when this was not known, Bill Gates stepped down from the board of directors saying that he would work on charity.



At the time, he had only been reappointed as director for three months.



At this time, the investigation was still going on.



His spokesman explained, "We had an internal relationship 20 years ago, but it ended well," he said. "But his resignation from the board has nothing to do with this."



Earlier, Bill Gates announced on the 3rd that he had agreed to divorce his wife, Merlinda, who had been married for 27 years.



At the time, the two did not disclose the reason for the divorce, but foreign media reports that Merlinda was greatly angry when he continued to befriend the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.



Epstein committed numerous sex crimes against minors, and in August 2019, Epstein took his own life in prison.



However, not only this, but also several testimonies that Bill Gates has often engaged in inappropriate behaviors such as approaching women at Microsoft or the charity'Bill and Merlinda Gates Foundation', pointing out whether his affair had a decisive influence on the divorce. Comes out.



The New York Times (NYT) cited two sources, saying that Bill Gates personally e-mailed a female MS employee who presented a report in front of him in 2006 and asked to have dinner together.



At the time, he wrote, "If you are uncomfortable, do what you did not do", and it was said that this woman did not respond.



One or two years later, he was also known to have said to the Women's Foundation employee who accompanied him on a business trip to New York, "I want to meet you. Would you like to have dinner with me?"



NYT said that the Gates couple also met at work and married. Bill Gates was Merlinda's boss at the time.



Spokesman Bill Gates denied, "I'm very disappointed to see so many false facts about the reasons for divorce of the couple."



He also added, "The rumors and speculations surrounding the divorce of the two are becoming more and more weird."



(Photo = Getty Image Korea)