Microsoft founder Bill Gates is speaking publicly about his relationship with Paula Hurd for the first time.
Appearing Tuesday on NBC’s “Today,” Gates had a curt, but telling, response when asked about Hurd, to whom he was first romantically linked in the media about two years ago.
“I’m lucky to have a serious girlfriend named Paula,” he said. “We’re having fun ― going to the Olympics and lots of great things.”
Hurd is the widow of former Oracle CEO Mark Hurd, who died in 2019. Though reports of the timeline vary, she and Gates are believed to have begun dating in early 2023, about two years after Gates’ marriage to Melinda French Gates ended.
Since then, Gates and Hurd have appeared together at a number of high-profile events, including Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez’s August 2023 engagement party. The pair made their red carpet debut in April of last year while attending an event at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles.
Gates’ comments on Hurd come as he is unveiling a new memoir. “Source Code: My Beginnings,” released this week, is billed in press notes as the “origin story of one of the most influential and transformative business leaders and philanthropists of the modern age.”
In an interview with the U.K.’s The Times last month to promote the book, Gates described his 2021 split from French Gates, with whom he shares three adult children, as “the mistake I most regret.”
“You would have to put that at the top of the list. There are others but none that matter,” he explained. “The divorce thing was miserable for me and Melinda for at least two years.”
He went on to note: “There is a certain wonderfulness to spending your entire adult life with one person because of the memories and depth of things you have done and having kids together.”
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In his “Today” chat, Gates clarified his earlier comments on French Gates a bit, noting: “I’ve moved past the divorce, and Melinda’s doing well. I’ve got a lot of work that I love to do. So I’m not really complaining about anything.”
Watch Bill Gates’ “Today” interview below.