Bill & Melinda Gates divorce finalised with papers

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates have officially finalised their divorce after 27 years of marriage.

A case filed in King County Superior Court in Washington on Monday formalized the decision, three months after the couple announced plans to separate.

Washington laws stipulate a 90-day waiting period between when a divorce is filed and finalized.

The marriage dissolution was finalized by a judge Monday in King County Superior Court, Seattle, Washington, according to court records, which detailed that neither party will receive “spousal support” or change their names.

The judge ordered the Gateses to divide their property according to the terms of a separation contract, which remains confidential under the terms of the divorce.

The couple filed for divorce on May 3 after 27 years of marriage, but pledged to continue their philanthropic work together.

The Gateses said at the time that they had reached agreement on how to divide their marital assets.

More than $3 billion worth of shares held by Gates’s Cascade Investment has been transferred to French Gates’s name.

That’s a fraction of their $146 billion fortune at the time of the announcement, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Gates, 65, is now worth more than $150 billion, according to the index.

In the months following the divorce announcement, there’s been intense focus on the future of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which the divorced couple run.

Warren Buffett, the only other trustee aside from the pair, stepped down from the board in June, while the foundation announced it would add more members. French Gates, 56, meanwhile, might exit her role in two years if she and Gates cannot work together.

The couple also committed an extra $15 billion to the organisation. That money will go to the foundation’s endowment, which stood at about $50 billion before the announcement and has given away about as much over the past two decades.

French Gates, who filed the divorce petition in May, signed the document on July 30 from “Pivotal Ventures,” her investment and incubation firm focused on gender equality based in Washington.