When your father is Bill Gates, who is one of the most famous and riches people in the world, it’s easy to assume that your life would be anything but trite: After all, you’ll be getting all the perks! From elite schools to instant popularity, you’ll be welcomed everywhere. But according to Bill Gates and Melinda French’s youngest daughter, Phoebe Gates, as kids they were not allowed to use that famous last name for a very long time— and deliberately so.In fact, Phoebe didn’t use Gates as her last name until she reached high school. Till then, she went by her mother’s maiden name, French. Why Phoebe Gates didn’t use the Gates surname while growing upThe 22-year-old entrepreneur and Stanford graduate recently revealed this on her podcast, The Burnouts. Talking about her childhood days as a Gates’ kid, Phoebe revealed that her parents were intentional about keeping their children’s identities separate from their father’s global fame for as long as possible.“My parents were really intentional about making sure we didn’t use my dad’s last name Gates until we were in high school— we went by my mom’s last name… And it really allowed me to be able to make friends in like a really authentic way,” Phoebe shared.This in turn lead to a simpler childhood with no added baggage of her father’s fame and legacy. This meant no instant privileges, and no classmates suddenly treating her differently because of who her dad was.Melinda French’s middle-class parenting rule
FILE – Melinda French Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, smiles as she leaves the Elysee Palace in Paris on June 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena, File)
Not letting Bill Gates’ children use his last name while growing up wasn’t some quirky family tradition, but a carefully thought-out decision by his now-ex wife Melinda French.Long before her highly publicised 2021 divorce from Bill Gates, Melinda had already made up her mind about how she wanted to raise her children. In a recent Vogue joint interview with her daughters, she shared about her college days and the children of extremely wealthy parents she had encountered.“I had been around a lot of kids from wealth in college… And I knew how I did not want my children to turn out,” Melinda had said.And so, to avoid her children to turn out to be, she decided to raise them with middle-class values, without the privileges of being a Gates.Keeping Bill Gates out of the school drop-off duties
Apart from making their children use her maiden surname French to raise them in simpler environment, Melinda also revealed that even Bill Gates dropping the kids off at school was carefully managed. For the first few weeks, he avoided school drop-offs of their kids altogether, giving their classmates time to form friendships organically before realising that they were sitting next to the children of one of the richest men in the world’s.And it wasn’t about keeping their children a secret from the world. Instead, it was all about timing and protecting their privacy and childhood. The Gates children were allowed to be just… kids first.Phoebe Gates reveals about her childhoodFor Phoebe, her parent’s strategy worked really well while growing up.She admitted that being fully associated with her family name at a young age may not have been healthy for her. “Before I’d be like, ‘Oh, this is my family’ or ‘This is who I’m related to,’ I don’t think it would have necessarily been good for me to be fully in the spotlight as a child,” she shared.Bill Gates’ children chose his last name when they were really readyInterestingly, Melinda didn’t enforce her parenting rule of not letting their children use the Gates surname forever. Instead, as the kids grew older, they were given the choice to decide their last name.In a March Elle Women of Impact feature, Melinda explained that she wanted each child to decide when— and if— they felt ready to carry the Gates name.“My oldest daughter went in with Gates; she felt like she was ready to take that name on,” Melinda said. “My son chose not to. He used French all the way through high school.”After all, being the children of one of the most famous and richest person in the world is not only about privileges, but also comes with a lot of expectations and responsibilities.What are your views on this? Tell us in the comments section below.
