Meet Bill Gates' Daughter, Jennifer Gates — And Her New Fiancé Nayel Nassar
Gates' eldest daughter Jennifer is a competitive equestrian, in medical school and newly-engaged.
Getty As one of the co-founders of the Microsoft Corporation, Bill Gates is one of the richest people in the world. After stepping down as chairman of Microsoft in 2014, Gates shifted his professional focus to philanthropy, co-founding the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Gates is married to Melinda and the father of three children. The Gates family is known to reside in a Medina, Washington mansion known as Xanadu 2.0.
The eldest of Gates' children is their daughter, Jennifer. Jennifer Gates has been photographed at events over the years, although she's generally lived a low-profile life.
Jennifer Gates' engagement to fiancé Nayel Nassar was announced earlier this week, putting her name back in the headlines and prompting people to ask: Who is Bill Gates' daughter, Jennifer? Below is more of what you ought to know about both Jennifer Gates and her engagement.
1. Who is Bill Gates's daughter, Jennifer? She's an accomplished equestrian.
Jennifer Gates is an alumnus of Seattle's Lakeside High School, which her father Bill also attended. After finishing high school, she attended Stanford University.
While attending Stanford, she was very involved with horseback riding. The name of her horse is Alex.
Bill Gates is reportedly so proud of her daughter's passion for horseback riding that he spent tens of millions of dollars on property in Wellington, Florida. A small town that is billed as "the horse capital of America," Wellington is home to the annual Winter Equestrian Festival, where millions of dollars in prizes are competed for. It's not only a seasonal home to Gates, but also to the horse-riding children of Steve Jobs and Bruce Springsteen.
2. Jennifer's fiancé, Nayel Nassar is also an accomplished equestrian.
Nassar is a professional showjumper and will be competing in the 2020 Olympics Games as a representative of Egypt. This marks the first time in 60 years that Egypt has had an equestrian time competing at the Olympics.
Though he represents Egypt in the upcoming summer olympics, Nassar was born in Chicago and raised in Kuwait. He reportedly relocated to the U.S. in 2009.
Presently Nassar is ranked 31st in the world by the International Federation For Equestrian Sports. Since 2010, he has been the winner of 36 jumping competitions.
3. The two have been together for several years.
Gates and Nassar appear to have met while attending Stanford University. Their relationship appears to have started in early 2017 as a result of their mutual interest in equestrianism.
On February 14, 2017, Nassar had posted about Gates to Instagram that he was a "lucky guy" to have convinced Gates "to be" his Valentine. In April 2017, Gates shared a photo with Nassar to Instagram from her 21st birthday celebration.
4. The two have the absolute support of Gates' parents.
Gates and Nassar will be reportedly be moving to New York City and living there until at least 2023 as Gates studies to become a doctor at New York's Icahn School Of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Gates’ parents reportedly purchased a $5 million condo on New York's Fifth Avenue near the Mount Sinai campus for the two to live in.
Both of Gates' parents offered public comments about the engagement on Jennifer's Instagram photo. Said Bill Gates: "I am completely thrilled! Congratulations, @jenniferkgates and @nayalnassar!" Added Melinda Gates: "So thrilled for you and @nayelnassar!"
5. The two are both active on social media.
Gates is active on Instagram, but does not have public accounts on Twitter or Facebook. Her Instagram account shows all facets of her life, as posts include her fiancé, her family, horses and her travel adventures. Combining several of her paths in life, a January 14, 2020 Instagram posting referenced her "research paper on Head and Spinal Injuries in Equestrian Sports" being published.
Nassar is active on Instagram, YouTube and Facebook. Most of his social media content is about equestrianism, although he does also post photos often with Gates. His most recent Insta post before announcing his engagement on Instagram showed him in-air on a horse at the Parc Des Expositions in France.
6. Gates and Nassar both come from wealthy families, but they're not inheriting most of Bill Gates' wealth.
While Bill and Melinda Gates are reportedly worth more than $100 billion, they're opting to pledge most of their wealth to philanthropic matters. This was addressed in an interview where Gates said "It's not a favor to kids to have them have huge sums of wealth. It distorts anything they might do, creating their own path."
Instead, Gates and her siblings will receive "a miniscule portion" of her parents' wealth. But luckily, Nassar's parents "run an architecture and design firm" overseas, so odds are that Gates and Nassar will be just fine on the financial end.
Darren Paltrowitz is a New York-based writer, editor and author. He is also the host of the Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz podcast, as co-produced with PureGrainAudio.com.