Bill Gates' Daughter Lives A Wildly Lavish Life & It's Clear She's So Out Of Touch
Melinda French Gates, the ex-wife of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, has notoriously claimed that her children, the kids of a billionaire, had an upper-middle-class upbringing. She even said (via People), "I just tried to keep them in the real world and point things out to them as much as possible." Despite these attempts to downplay the incredible wealth and notoriety that comes with the last name "Gates," Jennifer Gates' lavish lifestyle tells the real story. Not only does she flaunt a lot of extremely pricey purchases, but she also reveals that her parents are still footing the bill for some expenses.
The supposedly upper-middle class Stanford grad married her college sweetheart at a bash that boasted an estimated $2 million price tag in 2021. The jaw-dropping expense is nothing in comparison to the $51 million New York penthouse the couple bought in 2023. But the two accomplished equestrians could hardly enjoy their favored hobby of horseback riding in the city, so Gates bought up a $16 million horse farm to gift to his daughter in 2025. If these are the expenses of an upper-middle class lifestyle, it's hard to image what the rich or wealthy spend on a day-to-day basis. The continued narrative that the Gates family uses to disguise their large purses is completely out of touch with the reality of typical American family living.
Jennifer's sister, Phoebe, isn't much better
Phoebe Gates' life poses as a stark comparison to Jennifer Gates' posh style of living. Instead of taking up the traditional wealthy pastime, like horseback riding, Phoebe has started a more modern rich-person pursuit of becoming an influencer in the tech world. Like her sister, Phoebe attended Stanford, but took a hard pivot from her study of Human Biology, as she quickly began to explore tech, fashion, and social media. Without guidance or investments from her father, Phoebe founded Phia, an AI shopping assistant app that blended all of the billionaire's daughter's interests into one. As the app took off, the founder discovered great success. However, despite her achievements outside of her father's wealth, glimpses of Phoebe's life still reveal a pattern of rich kid behaviors.
A quick scroll through the influencer's Instagram shows a collection of lavish, high-end parties. The dripped-out tech mind has frequently flaunted designer brands while boasting an app that encourages sustainable shopping, and she is rarely photographed in the same outfit twice. Even if she had denounced any inheritance or money from her family, it's clear that her booming career has fed her lifestyle to bring her back to a level of out-of-touch living that simply doesn't align with the audience she's trying to reach with her handy-dandy app.