Bill Gates, Oracle CEO's Widow Paula Hurd Have Been Dating For Over A Year: Report

Bill Gates has reportedly found new love, nearly two years after his divorce from Melinda French Gates.

People and the Daily Mail reported that the Microsoft co-founder, 67, is dating Paula Hurd, the widow of software company Oracle's former CEO Mark Hurd, who died at 62 in 2019 after a reported battle with cancer. International Business Times could not independently verify the information.

"It's widely known that Bill Gates and Paula Hurd are dating, but she hasn't met his kids yet," an anonymous source told People.

Gates first sparked romance rumors after he was photographed with Hurd, 60, at the Australian Open in Melbourne last month, though she was described in reports as a "mystery woman" at the time. The pair sat side-by-side as they watched the men's singles final.

An anonymous friend of the couple who spoke with the Daily Mail said Gates and Hurd are "inseparable."

"They've been together over a year and she's always described as a 'mystery woman,' but it's no mystery to their inner circle that they're in a romantic relationship," the source claimed.

Hurd previously worked as a tech executive. She is now an event planner and organizer, and philanthropist.

During their trip to Australia last month, the couple reportedly also traveled to Sydney, where he met with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

At the time, photos of Gates and his new lady love taking a romantic stroll around the city, stopping to admire the panoramic views of the harbor and checking out the Opera House were published, but Hurd had not been identified.

News of the relationship comes nearly two years after Gates and French Gates announced that they were ending their 27-year marriage. Their divorce was finalized in August 2021.

They share three children, Jennifer, 26, Rory, 23, and Phoebe, 20.

Last year, the billionaire reflected on his marriage with French Gates in his interview with The Sunday Times. He described it as "great" despite ending in divorce and said he "wouldn't choose" to marry anyone else but his ex-wife if he could turn back time.

"Every marriage, as the kids leave the house, will go through a transition. Mine sadly went through this transition called divorce. But from my point of view, it was a great marriage," he said. "I wouldn't have changed it. You know, I wouldn't choose to marry someone else."

Gates said he doesn't have any plans to marry again following their split but still recommends marriage.

"Yes. I'm talking about would I marry Melinda all over again. In terms of my future, I don't have any plans, but I highly recommend marriage," he said.

Meanwhile, French Gates admitted that she struggled to work with her ex-husband amid their divorce. The former couple launched the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000.

"I also kept working with the person I was moving away from, and I need to show up and be my best self every single day," she told Fortune in October 2022. "So even though I might be crying at 9 a.m. and then have to be on a videoconference at 10 a.m. with the person I'm leaving, I have to show up and be my best."

The philanthropist said the pandemic somehow helped her deal with the "painful" separation because it gave her the privacy she needed.

"The odd thing about COVID is that it gave me the privacy to do what I needed to do," she continued. "It's unbelievably painful, in innumerable ways, but I had the privacy to get through it."