From the New York Times, this is the interview. I'm Lulu Garcia Navarro.

I have a lot of female friends who are in the midst of midlife reinventions. Divorce, job changes, aging,

navigating all of that as you can imagine is hard. Doing it in the glare of the public eye, even with buckets of money, has its own

unique challenges, which is why I was so intrigued when one half of one of the most powerful philanthropic couples in the world

announced a few months ago that she was striking out on her own. In May,

Melinda French Gates said that she was leaving the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,

which she co-founded in 2000. Despite a divorce from Bill a few years ago,

the two had continued working together, and it was understood that Melinda was a crucial part of what made that foundation so effective.

It's hard to overstate what an earthquake her departure was in the world of big donor charitable giving.

The Bill of Melinda Gates Foundation, soon to be called just the Gates Foundation,

is the largest philanthropic organization in the United States by far and it's given

away nearly 80 billion dollars since its inception. With help from fellow

billionaire Warren Buffett the Gateses have wielded enormous influence through their charitable

donations.

The causes, as varied as their much lauded global childhood vaccination initiative, to their

more controversial push to change standards for public education here in the United States.

The act of walking away from all that would have been surprising enough.

But then Melinda did something she had never done while at the Gates Foundation.

She entered the political fray, endorsing President Biden and saying that she was going to focus

for resources on supporting women's rights in the United States, including abortion rights.

When we spoke earlier this month, she told me why she feels so much urgency to get involved in these issues now.

I should say this was before Biden dropped out of the

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