Melinda French Gates has a new man!
According to photos exclusively obtained by Page Six, the philanthropist, who divorced billionaire Bill Gates in 2021, held hands with her new boyfriend, entrepreneur Philip Vaughn, after they landed in New York City following a helicopter ride on Wednesday morning.
Vaughn exited the helicopter first while Melinda, 60, followed behind.
The pair then walked hand-in-hand while walking from the chopper to their awaiting SUV.
Melinda wore dark-colored pants, a jacket, a floral scarf around her neck and a pair of sneakers, while Vaughn sported an Army green T-shirt under a blue sweater and a pair of dark-colored pants.
According to Vaughn’s LinkedIn profile, he worked at Microsoft, the company Melinda’s ex-husband, Bill, co-founded, for nearly nine years.
He is also the founder and chairman of Tavour, a craft beer delivery service, which was started in 2011.
Melinda and her ex-husband, Bill, 69, announced their split in May 2021 and finalized their divorce that August.
During a March 2022, interview with “CBS Morning,” the mom of three revealed that the tech giant’s relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his affairs played a role in their split.
“I did not like that he had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein, no. I made that clear to him,” she shared with Gayle King before adding that she met Epstein, who died by suicide in jail in August 2019, “exactly one time” because she “wanted to see who this man was.”
“I regretted it the second I walked in the door,” she explained. “He was abhorrent. He was evil personified. My heart breaks for these women.”
Bill also had a lengthy affair with one of his Microsoft staffers in 2019.
However, Melinda said she and her ex had moved past that prior to their divorce.
“I certainly believe in forgiveness, so I thought we had worked through some of that,” she explained to King.
“It wasn’t one moment or one specific thing that happened. There just came a point in time where there was enough there where I realized it just wasn’t healthy, and I couldn’t trust what we had.”
This story is being updated…
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