When your parents are the iconic Bill and Melinda Gates, it’s hard not to become level-headed, determined, and focused in life. Thanks to their parents’ steadfast characters, Jennifer, Phoebe, and Rory Gates have grown into independent adults, each pursuing their own unique paths and dreams. This is especially admirable given their immense privilege—being the children of a world-famous centibillionaire worth $157 billion and calling a $130 million high-tech lakefront mansion, Xanadu 2.0, home. Yet, it’s through their parents’ grounded parenting that these individuals born with a gem-studded spoon in their mouth remain remarkably down-to-earth.
Bill and Melinda Gates are known for donating billions through the Gates Foundation, and it would have been natural for them to make substantial contributions for their kids. It’s not uncommon for wealthy individuals to have their names on buildings or use their influence to secure the best education for their children. But that’s not the Gates’ way. In a recent interview, Melinda shared, “When our kids were very young, I finally went to Bill and said, ‘Universities come to us, and if we make a large gift, they want to put our name on a building. I don’t think that’s a good idea because our children don’t want to sit in a building with our name on it.’ Thank goodness we did that because one of my kids wouldn’t even consider a university with our name on a building—they want to carve their own path,” per The New York Times.
The Gates children are anything but spoiled, a fact well-known to the world. Stories abound of their allowance and how their parents never indulged their whims. Bill and Melinda consciously gave their trio a middle-class upbringing, not unlike their own. “We told them from an early age, ‘You’re not allowed to tell others how we traveled, or it will set you apart from other kids.’ So their upbringing was much more like mine: a very middle-class household where money dictated whether I got an extra pair of shoes that year or not. And I thought that was a good principle to instill.”
The kids have certainly inherited their parents’ drive and have carved out their own niches. Jennifer Gates earned a master’s degree in public health from Columbia University and a degree in human biology from Stanford University. In May 2024, she graduated from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and began her pediatric residency there. Rory, the second-born, graduated from the University of Chicago in June 2022, completing a double major and a master’s degree in just four years.
The youngest, Phoebe Gates, graduated from Stanford University in June 2024, completing her degree in just three years. What else can one expect from the children of the Microsoft co-founder who once said, “Legacy is a stupid thing! I don’t want a legacy.” Bill and Melinda Gates are known to walk the talk, having set aside a modest inheritance of $10 million for each of their three children from their vast fortune.
