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Melinda Gates reveals she's compared notes with Jeff Bezos' ex-wife on raising billionaire children

Melinda Gates reveals she's compared notes with Jeff Bezos' ex-wife on raising billionaire children

The billionaire ex-wives are good friends

Celebrities usually choose whether they want to give their kids a luxurious lifestyle or not.

Bill Gates' wife Melinda Gates in fact went to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' ex-wife MacKenzie Scott for parenting advice and concerns about spoiling her children.

It may seem like two random celebrities but both women are actually good friends.

In an interview with The New York Times, the philanthropist and ex-wife of the Microsoft co-founder shared that she holds MacKenzie in high regard and that they have exchanged parenting tips in the past.

Melinda and Bill have three children: Jennifer (28) Rory (25) and Phoebe (21).

Kevin Mazur/Contributor / Getty
Kevin Mazur/Contributor / Getty

Meanwhile, MacKenzie and Jeff share three sons and a daughter, though only their eldest, Preston (24) is publicly known by name.

Melinda recalled a conversation with MacKenzie where she spoke about their shared desire to avoid sending their kids to universities where their parents' names were 'on a building.'

Melinda said: 'I went to school with some of those kids at Duke University [whose parents' names were on a building], and I vowed to myself that if I ever had resources at my disposal, those were not the kind of children I wanted to raise.'

Bill Gates has previously opened up about not believing his children are entitled to inherit his vast fortune - and it's clear his wife feels similarly.

Melinda explained that they raised their kids with allowances instead of 'just buying them things.'

JORG CARSTENSEN/Contributor / Getty
JORG CARSTENSEN/Contributor / Getty

She added: 'They either had to buy with their allowance or put it on their wish list, that maybe they'd get it from their grandparents or us on their birthday or Christmas.

'And so I think it was much more of an upbringing like I grew up in: a very middle-class household where money did dictate whether I got an extra pair of shoes that year or not, right?

'And I thought that was a good principle to have.'

Melinda further described how 'helpful' MacKenzie was in refining her parenting approach, saying: 'I could see a bit how she was parenting, and I knew we had quite similar philosophies, actually.

'We were close-ish, not as close then, but I knew she was trying to raise her kids, literally just down the street from me, in essentially the same way.'

Featured Image Credit: Kevin Mazur/Contributor / JORG CARSTENSEN/Contributor / Getty