In the past four years, philanthropist Melinda French Gates made two life-changing transitions. In 2021, she finalized her divorce from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and in 2024 she left one of the largest charitable foundations in the world.
In her new memoir “The Next Day: Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward,” available April 15, French Gates says just a year before making the first of those decisions she couldn’t have predicted either of them. She even recalls saying in an interview in 2019 that the greatest loves of her life were an unbreakable tie between the Gates Foundation, her former husband and their three children.
But five years later she was at a crossroads — or as she calls it a “clearing,” a wide-open space in life where there’s uncertainty and possibility.
“I found myself preparing to enter a world where I had severed ties with both Bill and our foundation,” she writes.
French Gates’ book swings from one life transition to another, reflecting on how she’s approached each clearing. Early in her life she’d dart to the next goal she set for herself. Now, she’s stopping to look at all of the possibilities.
“The Next Day” is the second book by French Gates. She debuted as an author in 2019 with “The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World.”
In an interview with The Seattle Times last month, French Gates said the idea of writing the book came to her in June, when she gave the commencement speech for Stanford University. One of the themes in her speech was whether there was room in life to leave open spaces and embrace a path different from the one initially planned.
“I felt good about the speech and had good feedback but felt like I had so much more to say,” she said.
In the memoir, French Gates reflects on becoming a parent, the death of a friend, her decision to leave the Gates Foundation and her marriage to Bill Gates. She said the most difficult and painful chapter to write was about the divorce.
“If I could have left it out, I might have,” she said. “But people knew I had been through it, so I felt like it would be disingenuous to write a book on transitions and not include it.”
In “The Next Day,” French Gates describes the “grueling” logistics and wave of emotions associated with her divorce. She reveals she had panic attacks after telling Bill Gates she wanted a divorce and talks through the apprehension of telling her parents.
“I knew the months ahead were going to be difficult,” she writes. “Bill has a reputation for being one of the toughest negotiators in the world … and I was not looking forward to the part where our respective attorneys were going to start carving up the life we’d made together.”
When French Gates announced last year she was leaving the Gates Foundation, she also said she was bringing $12.5 billion from the Gates’ personal funds to commit to her work on behalf of women and families. She has been focused on Pivotal Ventures, which she created in 2015 to advance women’s power and influence in the U.S. and around the world.
In her book, she describes the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade as a catalyst for change in her life that ultimately led to her leaving the Gates Foundation.
“I realized it was time to move forward into the next chapter of my philanthropy — and to focus that chapter on helping to alter the trajectory for women and girls in the United States and around the world,” she writes.
French Gates is the 54th-richest person in the world, with a net worth of $30.2 billion, according to Forbes.
French Gates is touring several cities to promote the book, including the final stop in Seattle on April 24. Actor Reese Witherspoon will moderate the event at the Paramount Theatre.