How Bill Gates's Carefully Curated Geek Image Unraveled In Two Weeks How Bill Gates's Carefully Curated Geek Image Unraveled In Two Weeks Over the past two decades, Bill Gates trampolined off his and his wife Melinda's vast charitable efforts to another stratosphere of societal influence. The populist persona popped on May 3, when Bill and Melinda Gates announced divorce. Before all the revelations about his divorce, dubious workplace behavior and ties to Jeffrey Epstein, Bill Gates was just America's huggable billionaire techno-philanthropist. Sure, he had accumulated absurd riches from cofounding Microsoft Corp. and lived in a $130 million mansion with an indoor trampoline room. But he was also known to drive his kids to school, binge Modern Family, dress like Ned Flanders and wait in line for his favorite cheeseburgers.