On Melinda Gates's 2021 favourites, chocolates, 'Sex Education' and Taylor Swift

Philanthropist Melinda French Gates also loved watching the film, “Crazy Stupid Love” in 2021.

It’s the time of year-ender lists. And American philanthropist Melina French Gates has shared her favourites that inspired, challenged and gave her hope in 2021.

In a one-minute Q&A video, she shared her favourite book, TV show, film and music among others.

French Gates named “The Vanishing Half” by Brit Bennett as her favourire book of the year. British series “Sex Education” and “Lupin” were the TV shows she liked the most in 2021.

She also loved watching the film, “Crazy Stupid Love”.

Was there any skill or hobby she learnt this year? “How to be more patient,” Melinda French Gates, 57, said. She said chocolate was her guilty pleasure this year.

“Taylor Swift taking back her own music,” she said when asked what her favourite music of the year was.

“What gave me hope and Jenn and Nayel’s love for one another,” she said, speaking of said her oldest daughter Jennifer’s wedding in October. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, French Gates’s ex-husband, too had said their daughter’s wedding was his highlight of this year.

Bill Gates, 66, and Melinda French Gates, made the announcement of their divorce on Twitter in May this year. The divorce is among the most high-profile separations in recent times. They had, however, said they would keep working together at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the largest charitable foundations in the world.

The Gateses were married in 1994 in Hawaii. They met after she began working at Microsoft as a product manager in 1987.

What work is French Gates most proud of this year? “I’m most proud of the paid family medical leave advocates and what that community has built and how they’ve gotten that topic on to the national agenda,” she said.
She said continuing the work that she loves is what she is looking forward to in 2022.