- Melinda French Gates says she and MacKenzie Scott have more in common than their philanthropy.
- French Gates said she and Scott are soulmates when it comes to parenting, according to the NYT.
- French Gates said he didn’t want to spoil his children so they wouldn’t become spoiled and arrogant.
Melinda French Gates and MacKenzie Scott have a lot in common, besides both being married to a tech billionaire.
French Gates revealed in an interview with The New York Times published Sunday that she and Scott share similar parenting styles.
French Gates told The Times that she and her then-husband, Bill Gates, did not want their children to grow up spoiled and arrogant.
“Well, first of all, they had an allowance, so we didn’t buy them things. And they had to buy things with their allowance or put them on their wish list, which maybe they got from their grandparents or us for their birthday or Christmas,” she said.
While French Gates said this parenting style seemed like “a good principle to follow,” she noted that it was encouraging to see that she wasn’t the only billionaire wife to practice such an approach.
“And I have to say, again, MacKenzie was helpful to me in that. I got to see a little bit of how she was raising her kids, and I knew we had very similar philosophies, actually,” she told The Times.
“We were close, not so much back then, but I knew she was trying to raise her kids, literally down the street from me, basically the same way,” she continued.
It’s not just parenting. Both French Gates and Scott have dedicated themselves fully to activism and philanthropy since divorcing their ex-husbands, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, respectively.
“I have great respect, enormous respect for what she’s doing,” French Gates told The Times of Scott’s philanthropy. “She certainly had an effect on me in philanthropy, and I hope I had an effect on her.”
Their advocacy and charitable giving have even earned them their own critic — Elon Musk.
Musk labeled both women as ex-wives of billionaires who are trying to bring about the “downfall of Western civilization.”
In March, Scott donated $640 million to 361 nonprofits, just weeks after Musk criticized her charitable work. The hefty donation was more than the $250 million she had initially pledged to donate last year.
French Gates, meanwhile, drew criticism from Musk after endorsing President Joe Biden in June. She has since endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, who is expected to replace Biden as the Democratic nominee after he dropped out of the race this month.
“I thought it was silly,” French Gates said of Musk’s criticism before taking a swipe at outspoken tech executives like him, according to The Times.
“Over the years, I’ve seen tech leaders interviewed about their parenting style. One guy spent, you know, 60 hours at his company that week. I’m sure he’s a fantastic CEO and he’s done a great job — maybe or maybe not — at his company,” she said.
“But then they get asked about parenting, and they spill all this stuff, and you think, something doesn’t make sense here,” she added.
Representatives for French Gates and Scott did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s requests for comment sent outside of normal business hours.
