This gesture spoke volumes.
Bill Gates was looking for the best way to introduce his wife Melinda on the final stop of her book tour for “The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World.” So he called an old friend and former president for help.
“I get to introduce Melinda for the last stop on her book tour,” the Microsoft co-founder told the more than 2,500 people seated in Seattle’s McCaw Hall on Thursday. But he confessed that he didn’t know the best approach to do right by her.
So as he noted on Twitter, he called in a ringer — as in, former president Barack Obama:
Gates played a video of Obama taking his call, and the former POTUS shared some of the things that he had considered for introducing his wife Michelle in the past, such as during her own successful book tour.
Related: Michelle Obama’s ‘Becoming’ could become best-selling memoir ever
The amusing montage featured Obama ordering his wife a pizza, hiring a mariachi band, carving an ice sculpture and getting a dance crew. (The audience applauded each option loudly.)
“In the end though, Bill, I just went with flowers,” Obama said, adding that while that was right for Michelle, Gates would have to do what was right for Melinda.
The former world leader then added his own special message for Melinda: vowing to support her Lift movement to empower women:
‘Please tell Melinda I’m committed to the Lift. We’re gonna do everything we can to keep pushing until every single girl has the rights and opportunities and the freedom to go as far as her dreams are going to take her.’
Melinda Gates seemed to love it, per a tweet she shared on Friday afternoon.
But Gates had one more surprise in store. He offered his wife a heartfelt message of his own. “My gift to Melinda is simply to tell her that the moment we met was my ‘Moment of Lift,’” he said, his voice cracking with emotion.
She walked out, gave him a hug and a kiss, and joked, “I thought I was getting an ice sculpture!”
It was the latest highlight on Melinda Gates’ publicity tour for her book. She recently told The Sunday Times that being married to her husband is “incredibly hard” sometimes, and that he has needed “a little training” to balance his work with his family life at times. And she also weighed in on the socialism vs. capitalism debate on CNBC, stating that Americans are “lucky” to have capitalism, and that, “I would far rather live in a capitalistic society than a socialist society.”
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