Bill Gates’ daughter Phoebe Gates has revealed she’s in a relationship with Paul McCartney’s grandson, Arthur Donald.
On June 26, the 21-year-old daughter of the billionaire Microsoft founder confirmed her long-speculated romance with Arthur – the son of The Beatles legend’s eldest daughter, Mary McCartney. In a photo diary for Nylon, Phoebe documented her graduation from Stanford University, where she received a bachelor of science degree in human biology in just three years.
While sharing photos from the June 15 ceremony, the fashion entrepreneur shared a candid snap of herself with the 25-year-old, who she referred to as her “boyfriend”.
“My boyfriend, Arthur, giving me a lift post-ceremony,” Phoebe captioned an image of herself being carried on Arthur’s back. She shared another photo with her boyfriend taken during her graduation party that evening, in which Phoebe wore a Tiffany-blue silk dress while Arthur donned a blue suit jacket and matching undershirt.
“With Arthur, he cleans up nicely,” Phoebe said under a photo of the pair with their arms wrapped around each other.
In addition to the relationship hard-launch, Phoebe shared another image of her mother, Melinda French Gates, as she gave the commencement speech at her own daughter’s graduation. “My mother delivering the 133rd Stanford commencement address – graduating early to watch her deliver this was a dream come true!” she wrote.
This marked the first time Phoebe has confirmed months of speculation surrounding her relationship with Arthur. The couple initially sparked romance rumors in October 2023, when she shared a photo on Instagram of them smiling in front of the Eiffel Tower. “Paris on film,” she captioned the post.
The duo also attended the premiere of FX’s Feud: Capote vs. The Swans in New York City at the Museum of Modern Art earlier this year. However, in an interview with Bustle last March, Phoebe declined to comment about her and Arthur’s relationship status.
As for Arthur, he is the eldest son of British photographer Mary McCartney and her ex-husband, TV producer Alistair Donald. He attended University College School in London before graduating from Yale University in 2021 with a major in history.
The celebrity pairing may not come as a surprise to some, considering Phoebe’s famous family has close ties to Arthur’s aunt, Stella McCartney. In August 2023, the then-college student and her roommate Sophia Kianni collaborated with the fashion designer on a capsule bag collection to honor the Women’s Tennis Association and the 50th anniversary of the US Open. The limited edition collection also served as promotion for the Stanford graduate’s upcoming digital fashion platform, Phia.
Speaking to Women’s Wear Daily in October 2022, Phoebe revealed that her mother has a close relationship with Stella. “She and my mom are actually good friends,” she told the outlet. “Even when I was little she would send me stuff and little notes and I’d be so excited. I’ve been asking my mom forever and ever if I could meet with her.”
Phoebe ultimately met Stella in London while she was interning at British Vogue, and said they “instantly hit it off.”
“I felt very connected to her, I feel like because she’s been able to use the platform she had, because of who her dad is, and then she took that and instead of being like: ‘Oh, people define me by this,’ she took it and she was like: ‘Okay, I have this immense privilege, now I’m going to use it to leverage something,’ and what she chose to leverage is to launch a brand that is completely sustainable,” Phoebe said.
“So I think we are really deeply connected because that’s a lot of what I think about: ‘Okay, I’m my parents’ daughter, that gives me immense privilege, but it’s not what I’m defined by. I want to have my own identity, I want to be my own person, I want to branch away from that, but how do I do that in a way where I can yield some sort of change?’”
Phoebe is the youngest daughter of Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. The former couple, who divorced in 2021 after 27 years of marriage, are also parents to daughter Jennifer, 28, and son Rory, 23. She was previously in a relationship with fellow Stanford student Robert Ross.
Meanwhile, Arthur was romantically linked to Ava Phillippe – the daughter of Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe – in 2018.
