Melinda French Gates opens up about divorce: "I couldn't trust what we had"

Billionaire philanthropist Melinda French Gates reflected on her "journey of healing" following her painful and high-profile divorce from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates in an exclusive interview with "CBS Mornings" anchor Gayle King.

Melinda and Bill were married for 27 years before announcing their split last May. French Gates told King that she shed "a lot of tears for many days," and recalled lying on the carpet thinking, "How can this be? How can I get up? How am I gonna move forward?"

She said there were days that she was angry following the split. "That's part of the grieving process," she said. "You're grieving a loss of something you thought you had and thought you had for your lifetime."

"I mean, this is painful stuff," she continued. "And at the end of the day though, I started on this journey of healing, and I feel like I'm starting to get to the other side. And I do feel like I'm turning a page in the chapter now. I mean, it's 2022 and I'm actually really excited about what's to come and life ahead for me."

King also asked French Gates about the revelation that her husband had an affair back in 2000.

"I certainly believe in forgiveness, so I thought we had worked through some of that," French Gates said. "It wasn't one moment or one specific thing that happened. There just came a point in time where there was enough there that I realized it just wasn't healthy, and I couldn't trust what we had."

Watch more of King's exclusive, wide-ranging interview with French Gates Thursday on "CBS Mornings."