Bill and Melinda Gates (Photo : Reuters/)
Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder and former CEO with a net worth of $78 billion, has become one of the wealthiest and most successful people on planet Earth. That said, the first time Bill Gates asked out Melinda Gates on a date, at first she was unimpressed and turned him down.
The couple met for the first time in 1987, when Microsoft had just hired Melinda French as a product manager. Many months afterwards, Bill phoned her to ask if she would go out with him on a date.
Specifically, Bill asked if he and Melinda could go out on a date "two weeks" later, according to People. Melinda responded that she did not know what would be on her itinerary then. He was "not spontaneous enough."
The Microsoft CEO was not ready to throw in the towel. He phoned back one hour later and asked if he was being spontaneous enough. Melinda replied, "Okay,...we can try."
After a seven-year courtship Bill and Melinda married on Jan. 1, 1994 during a secret ceremony on the island of Lanai, according to Business Insider. Their family now includes three daughters: Jennifer, Rory, and Phoebe.
The power couple launched the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000, whose $42 billion endowment makes it the largest private foundation in the world. Their foundation's main goals are to expand education and IT (Information Technology) in the U.S., and to reduce poverty and improve healthcare worldwide.
At the end of Bill's and Melinda's first trip to Africa, they agreed to give back nearly all of their wealth to society. Melinda recalls that this decision was an "easy" one.
