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Bill Gates makes first appearance since divorce announcement – and eagle-eyed viewers spot shock detail
BILL Gates made his first public appearance on Wednesday since announcing his divorce and eagle-eyed viewers spotted he was still wearing his wedding ring.
, 65, was the last speaker at the two-day “Global Forum on Economic Recovery,” joining the event virtually from one of his homes.
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spoke to the US Chamber of Commerce CEO Suzanne Clark about lessons learned from the Covid pandemic.
He appeared animated despite the split announced earlier this month, and the new allegations about his bad behavior with female employees at and his charity foundation.
During the “armchair conversation,” Gates’ wedding band was clearly visible on his left hand.
“We’ve learned a lot that will help us for the next pandemic and by making some investments in [research and development]," Gates said
"Then having factories available, having surveillance and a big team of experts on a global basis, we will next time handle something like this without anywhere near the damage that we had to go through."
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It is unclear which of his homes the Microsoft founder was speaking from.
A source told that he had been lying low in recent weeks at an exclusive golf club in Indian Wells, California.
His return to the spotlight on Wednesday comes after explosive claims that Gates made unwanted advances on women he worked with at Microsoft and at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
On Monday he also confirmed the bombshell claims that he had an affair with a Microsoft employee.
The woman reportedly wrote a letter to the company’s board about their relationship in 2019.
An outside law firm was brought in to investigate but he stepped down from the board before the probe was complete.
Gates denied that his departure had anything to do with the affair.
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“There was an affair almost 20 years ago which ended amicably,” a spokeswoman told
“It is extremely disappointing that there have been so many untruths published about the cause, the circumstances, and the timeline of Bill Gates’s divorce,” spokeswoman Bridgitt Arnold also told
“The rumors and speculation surrounding Gates’s divorce are becoming increasingly absurd, and it’s unfortunate that people who have little to no knowledge of the situation are being characterized as ‘sources.’”
It comes after Microsoft’s “toxic culture” flowed from the top after Gates "picked out women to fulfill himself."
Katherine Moussouris, who worked as a computer researcher with Microsoft from 2007 to 2014, alleges Gates "targeted women."
"It was a culture of testing women poorly with impunity and I think these revelations have shown that to the world,” she told .
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“Not only did he choose his wife from his employees, he chose to target several other women to fulfill himself with no consequences.
“It felt like this culture flowed from the top and it was a culture of paying lip service to diversity and inclusion and not really supporting women in sexual assault claims or their career progression.”
Microsoft was hit with a discrimination lawsuit in 2015 in which women at the company claimed they were "ignored, abused, or degraded."
It also alleged that male bosses ran a “good ol' boy culture” where “abuse and toxic behavior” was accepted.
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The lawsuit was public but newly unearthed internal complaints published by reveal the extent of the allegations and the shocking claims made by female staff.
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from inappropriate touching to one female intern claiming she was raped by a male intern.
The suit was dismissed last November after a judge ruled that it was not a class action matter.
Microsoft has said it investigated Gates' involvement with woman employee
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