Jennifer Gates

By Nehru Odeh

It seems like a fairy tale. But it is real and has all the condiments that make for a pleasurable meal. Microsoft founder and second richest man in the world, Bill Gates is on a roll. His eldest daughter, Jennifer literally set the internet on fire and the world thinking when she announced on Thursday, 30 January, via her Instalgram account, that her fellow equestrian lover and Chicago-born man of Egyptian descent, Nayel Nassar had proposed to her at a choice location.

“Nayel Nassar, you are one of a kind. Absolutely swept me off my feet this past weekend, surprising me in the most meaningful location over one of our many shared passions,” Gates enthused, posting alongside a photo showing the lovebirds sitting on snow. She also added that she “can’t wait to spend the rest of our lives learning, growing, laughing and loving together.”

Surreal? Certainly. But her fiance, Nassar also fuelled the fire by posting back on Instalgram two other photos of the wintry proposal, writing, “She said Yes. I’m feeling like the luckiest (and happiest) man in the world right about now,” he captioned his pictures with his wife-to-be. “Jenn, you are everything I could have possibly imagined… and so much more. I can’t wait to keep growing together through this journey called life, and I simply can’t imagine mine without you anymore.” The Egyptian equestrian then thanked his beautiful partner for “making every single day feel like a dream to me.”

Of course, everyday feels like a dream to the couple considering the fact that not only are they having the best time of their lives, having found and cemented love in the most unlikely place – the horse stable ,  the billionaire Gates and his wife, Melinda, have given their nods to the relationship and are thrilled.  But the intriguing thing about their 23-year-old daughter’s love life is that she found love where one of her passions lies: horse riding. She and her  fiancé seem to have bonded over a mutual love for the sport. They are not just incredible horse riders – Nassar is a professional horse rider who has helped his country, Egypt quality for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, while Gates considers herself an amateur horse rider. Yet another intriguing thing is that she owns The Paris Panthers, the team for which her fiancé plays.

Jennifer Gates and Nayel Nassar

“Horses are just one part of our life, but we love the sport … He’s a professional, and I do this as an amateur. So, to be able to share our love and passion for horses with each other is just incredible,” Gates, who learned to ride horse at six, was quoted as saying in an interview. Aside from horse riding, they have so many things in common. They both attended Stanford University and have a zest for travel. They have been photographed together at events around the world, like the Longines Global Champions Tour in Madrid, Spain. Gates herself have seen so many exotic parts of the world.

Gates, it seems, caught the travel bug in 2016, while on an exchange programme in Australia she calls  a “transformative three months” . “Miss it more than ever and so grateful for the memories and friends made in Australia,” she once said. Gates does not only have a soft spot for Australia,   she is also a big fan of the Mediterranean. The globe-trotting Stanford graduate has been spotted all over Europe, though not on the typical backpacker route. According to Gates, her travels often coincide with her parents’ work.

Gates can’t forget easily the fun she had when Nassar took her on a trip to Kuwait in December 2017 . It seemed the whole oil-rich country in the gull stood up to welcome them, as their visit buzzed on the internet. The photo they snapped went viral.  “Memorable times in Kuwait last week with family and old friends,” Nassar captioned his shot of the lovebirds. “Got to bring Jenn home and give her a glimpse of my childhood. It meant the world to me. Needless to say, she was loved by all.”

The shot that Nassar took went down particularly well with local Instagram users, who showered the couple with love and support. “Simplicity without flashiness is the most beautiful thing,” one poster said, while another welcomed Gates to the country. “Beautiful Kuwait welcomes its guests no matter where they come from,” they said.

Though the proud daughter of a billionaire father considered the second richest person in the world, she hasn’t had it all. Her dad had made sure from the outset that she and her siblings have to forge their own path  and has also decided to give them only a minuscule portion of the family’s wealth.  It has been reported that Gates and her two siblings, Rory and Phoebe, will get10 million dollars each and plenty of perks. “They will be given an unbelievable education and that will all be paid for, and certainly anything related to health issues we will take care of,” Gates once said. “But in terms of their income, they will have to pick a job they like and go to work. They are normal kids now. They do chores, they get pocket money.”

Yet the billionaire and his wife, famous for their philanthropy and charity works across the globe, are not taking their eldest child’s love life lightly. Aside from giving their nods, they have also made sure she lives comfortably ever after. She and her fiancé live in a swanky New York apartment, a  five million dollar condo on Fifth Avenue, her parents bought for her when she graduated from Stanford.  The mammoth 2,389 square feet condo (which previously belonged to Carmelo and La La Anthony) is said to have three bedrooms, a spa bathroom, and an open living area with spectacular views of Central Park. That’s not to mention the on-site gym and resident’s lounge.

Her parents have also bought her a fifteen million, eighty-two dollars horse farm in the Westchester town of North Salem.  They spent an eye-watering 37 million dollars buying up “an entire street in the horse capital of South Florida” (but it is actually a number of contiguous properties in Wellington, Florida). The Gates bought this horse farm so that their daughter can maintain her own stable, housing her favorite horse named Alex. They also set up a European base for her in 2018, buying up a stable in Belgium.

Still, why would the daughter of a billionaire and the second richest man in the world fall in love with an Egyptian, even though Chicago born? The reasons are legion. Aside from the fact that both Gates and Nassar share a common love for show jumping , Nassar, though o Egyptian descent, born in Chicago, raised in Kuwait and trained in Europe is, like Gates,  very wealthy.  His worth is said to be estimated at 20 million dollars, largely accumulated from his success as a show jumper.

With all the things she and her fiancé have in common, coupled with the way she found love in a horsey place as well as their stupendous wealth,   Gates love life is like a fairy tale. Still, she is not carried away because she has been given the proper parental upbringing to forge ahead in life. “I wanted you to be whoever you wanted to be in the world, and as you get older I actually have no concerns or fears about that,” a beaming Melinda once told  her daughter. “You make incredibly wise decisions for yourself today and I think my job as a mom was to try and instill my values — or what I thought were the right values — in you, and then let you go out and live your life the way that you wanted to live it. And I see you doing that.

Gates is indeed living life the way she wanted o live it. Nothing can be more fulfilling than that.  But the question now is, when will the wedding bell ring? Your guess, they say, is as good as mine.