Bill Gates left Microsoft’s board last year after fellow board members decided he should step down amid an investigation into a years long relationship he had with a female Microsoft employee, the Wall Street Journal reported.
According to WSJ, board members hired a law firm in late 2019 to conduct an investigation after a Microsoft engineer alleged in a letter that she had a sexual relationship with Gates over several years.
After an internal investigation into the woman’s claims, several board members decided that Gates needed to step down, according to WSJ.
A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed an investigation into the matter was conducted.
“Microsoft received a concern in the latter half of 2019 that Bill Gates sought to initiate an intimate relationship with a company employee in the year 2000,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “A committee of the Board reviewed the concern, aided by an outside law firm, to conduct a thorough investigation. Throughout the investigation, Microsoft provided extensive support to the employee who raised the concern.”
Gates resigned from the Microsoft board on March 13, 2020, to “dedicate more time to his philanthropic priorities including global health, development, education, and his increasing engagement in tackling climate change.”
Gates acknowledged the affair in a statement through a spokesperson to the Journal on Sunday and said it “ended amicably”.
“There was an affair almost 20 years ago which ended amicably,” said the spokeswoman. She added that Gates’ decision to step down from the board “was in no way related to this matter. In fact, he had expressed an interest in spending more time on his philanthropy starting several years earlier.”
Gates announced his divorce from his wife Melinda Gates earlier this month after 27 years of marriage.
The Journal reported last week that Melinda Gates was meeting with divorce lawyers in 2019 because of concerns she had about her husband’s dealings with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
