Biography

She and her husband Bill Gates were both awarded the 2010 J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding.

She meet Microsoft chief executive Bill Gates by chance while both were present at a press conference in Manhattan, New York City.

Individually, but at the same time as her husband, Bill, Melinda was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, by President Barack Obama, in a live televised ceremony held in the East Room of the White House, on November 22, 2016, along with nineteen other recipients, the the largest, and final Medal of Freedom ceremony of Obama's presidency. At this ceremony, the twenty-one total recipients, in alphabetical order, included: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Elouise Cobell (posthumous award given to her son), Ellen DeGeneres, Robert De Niro, Richard Garwin, Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, Frank Gehry, Margaret Hamilton (as Margaret H. Hamilton), Tom Hanks, Rear Admiral Grace Hopper (posthumous award given to her niece), Michael Jordan, Maya Lin, Lorne Michaels, Newton Minow, Eduardo Padron (as Eduardo Padrón), Robert Redford, Diana Ross, Vin Scully, Bruce Springsteen and Cicely Tyson.

Has three children: Jennifer Katharine Gates (26 April 1999), son Rory John Gates (23 May 1999), and Phoebe Adele Gates (14 September 2002).

Melinda and Bill were married in Lanai (Hawaii) where the 100+ guests included Warren Buffett, Katherine Graham, Paul Allen and Craig McCaw. Singer-songwriter Willie Nelson entertained the guests at the wedding reception.

I care much more about saving the lives of mothers and babies than I do about a fancy museum somewhere.

But we also believe in taking risks, because that's how you move things along.

All lives have an equal value.

We talk a lot in our home together about where we're going, what I'm doing.

I learn in a different way. I learn experientially.