Melinda Gates’ rumored new boyfriend has admitted to verbally abusing his ex-wife while she was pregnant, in an unearthed except of his 2000 memoir.
The billionaire, 58, who is newly single following her split from Microsoft founder Bill Gates, has been secretly dating former Fox News reporter Jon Du Pre, 68, ‘for months’, according to a recent TMZ report.
Du Pre, who has worked across the country as a news anchor in various cities, was previously married 1985’s Miss Utah Gina Larsen.
The pair met while both studying journalism at the Mormon college Brigham Young.
Their tumultuous marriage features in his autobiography, named The Prodigal Father. In one shocking section, Du Pre wrote: ‘Once she was disarmed and I was loaded with explosive rage, she didn’t have a chance.’
Du Pre, who has worked across the country as a news anchor in various cities, was previously married 1985 Miss Utah Gina Larsen, shown here on her LinkedIn page
Melinda French Gates appears to have moved on from ex-husband Bill Gates, as TMZ reported that the computer scientist, 58, has been secretly dating a former Fox News reporter named Jon Du Pre for months now. They are seen together back in April
Gina Larsen won Miss Utah in 1985 and competed in the following year’s Miss America pageant in Atlantic City
Du Pre and his first wife pictured here in 1986 met while they were both studying journalism at Brigham Young University
Following a period working in journalism, Gina moved into the IT world working for giants such as Adobe and Cisco
He added: ‘I stood and ran across the living room at my pregnant wife, and she cowered as I swelled with hot, angry air and launched the worst verbal attack she had ever endured.’
The book is based primarily around Du Pre’s abusive relationship with his father, Robert, a once prominent civil rights lawyer and FBI agent who was accused of spying on suspected communists in Hollywood in the 1950s.
He said that his father’s social life revolved around drinking and carousing which often left the family without enough money for food.
Du Pre recounts the abuse he inflicted upon his wife writing: ‘Welcome to the real world, princess, where not everyone is happy. For once, this one’s not about you, you spoon-fed, spoiled-rotten b****. This one’s about me.
‘I’m going to find out why my father f****d up my life, and p*** on you for trying to make me feel guilty about it.’
Jon penned his own book, entitled The Prodigal Father, in 2000. The memoir showcased a journey that he went on to find his estranged and alcoholic father, Robert, 20 years after he ‘abandoned’ Jon and his family members
The former Fox reporter said that shortly after the couple wed in 1986, his new wife learned about his rage and had ‘learned which of my buttons never to press.’
He went on: ‘Gina grew accustomed to being crushed in arguments, to being embarrassed in front of our friends, to taking the blame for little thing that went wrong — the baby’s stinking diaper, the burnt toast, the bounced check.
‘I knew that demons from my past were threatening to destroy this new life that meant so much to me.’
In a more endearing note, Du Pre wrote about seeing his future wife competing in Miss America in Atlantic City in 1986. He said: ‘I licked my lips when I saw her in that bathing suit.’
An article from the period describes Gina’s bathing suit as a ‘white suit made by Trina Best of Provo, Utah.’
Gina – who is a BYU graduate and started her career off as a reporter like Jon – was also a pageant queen. She was crowned as Miss Utah in 1985. It’s unclear when she and Jon split. She is pictured with Miss Utah 2019
Du Pre recounts the abuse he inflicted upon his wife writing: ‘Welcome to the real world, princess, where not everyone is happy. For once, this one’s not about you, you spoon-fed, spoiled-rotten b****’
They were married at the Salt Lake Temple of the Church of Latter-day Saints. His book became such a success that he was invited on to Oprah Winfrey’s talk show to discuss his childhood.
During their marriage, the couple had three children with her ex-husband, Kasey, Jessie and Jonny.
According to her LinkedIn page, Gina still uses the last name Du Pre. Like her ex-husband’s current girlfriend, she has a background in IT working as a virtual services account manager with Cisco.
Gina previously worked for tech giants such as CIS and Adobe. Prior to going into the IT world, Gina was a a news anchor for KSL5, a Salt Lake City-based station.
She graduated from Brigham Young in 1986. Following graduation, she spent time working at WFRV-TV in Green Bay Wisconsin, where Du Pre was working at the time. The couple moved back to Utah in 1988.
In a glowing tribute on that page, Kasey Du Pre wrote of his mother: ‘Gina is essentially the Steph Curry of life, making things appear to be way easier than they are. While raising 3 kids as a single mom, Gina put all 3 of her children through college because of her relentless work ethic and ability to meet sales quota.’
Since her marriage to Du Pre, Gina remarried motivational speaker Todd King, also a Brigham Young graduate.
At the 1985 Miss Utah competition, Gina sang the song ‘The Greatest Love of All’ for the talent portion of the pageant.
After Melinda and Bill split, the 58-year-old spoke out in detail about what lead to the uncoiling of her marriage, and she said there wasn’t one particular thing that lead to their breakup, but rather, it was a bunch of things that added up over time.
She revealed that she slowly realized she ‘wasn’t healthy’ in the relationship, and that she could no longer ‘trust what she and Bill had.’
Now, it looks like she may have found someone new – and her rumored beau appears to be a major step in another direction from her romance to Bill.