Melinda French Gates and her new boyfriend, Philip Vaughn, had a romantic date night in New York shortly after going public with their relationship.
Billionaire Bill Gates’ ex-wife smiled all the way to dinner with the 60-year-old businessman at the upscale Le Bernardin restaurant in Midtown Manhattan on the evening of November 30 (local time). On the way to the restaurant, the two held hands tightly and kept laughing.
Melinda wore a long black sleeveless dress and a silver necklace. Her blonde hair was parted in the middle, curled slightly and left loose. The 60-year-old philanthropist also chose a pair of black high heels and carried a black clutch that matched her dress
Meanwhile, Philip wore an open-necked white shirt with a dark suit and leather shoes. The founder and chairman of craft beer delivery company Tavour kept turning to chat with Melinda, making her smile brightly.
According to LinkedIn, Philip Vaughn, 60, worked as a programmer at Microsoft, the company Melinda’s ex-husband co-founded, for nine years from 1999 to 2008. Melinda publicly dated Philip three years after finalizing her divorce from Bill Gates.
The mother of three has said her ex-husband’s relationship with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was “one of the many reasons” for their split. “I didn’t like the fact that he met Jeffrey Epstein, absolutely not. I made that clear to him,” the 60-year-old philanthropist told Gayle King on CBS Mornings in 2022.
Melinda explained that she only met Epstein once out of curiosity about him but “regretted it the moment I walked in the door.” “He was disgusting. He was the embodiment of evil. I feel sorry for those girls,” Melinda said of the pedophile billionaire – who committed suicide in prison in 2019.
In addition, one of the other reasons why Melinda and Bill Gates’ 27-year marriage fell apart was because she discovered her husband’s affair with a female Microsoft employee.
Although they are now divorced, the two are still devoted parents to their children. They have two daughters together, Jennifer, 28, Pheobe, 22, and a son, Rory, 25. After splitting from Bill Gates, Melinda dated former Fox News reporter Jon Du Pre for two years. They split in April this year. Meanwhile, the Microsoft founder has been dating Paula Hurd since February last year.