The Gates break-up is somehow being framed in Nigerian media as irrefutable evidence that divinity, and not money, sustains a marriage. In other words, if the Gates had a little more god, the marriage might have been saved. It’s the sort of awkward, largely conservative thinking that suggests that wealth and successful marriage are incompatible.
Bill and Melinda Gates had barely finished saying the “D” word when all kinds of marriage counsellors and gossipmongers besieged Nigerian social media with theories about why they think the couple is breaking up.
The sentiments, ranging from the probable to the bizarre, have defied the couple’s request for privacy. Misery loves company. Some accounts even make you wonder if the composers might have had a bedside view of the 27-year-old marriage.
A break-up is a messy thing. You don’t have to experience it to know. But for all those who are outside, looking in, it always seems that one or the other partners could have done this or that to save the marriage. A failing marriage is easier saved by outsiders.
In the case of the Gates, their explanation that they had to part ways because they believe they…