Phoebe Gates – daughter of billionaire businessman Bill Gates – has been flooded with comments containing racist abuse after sharing a photo with her rumoured boyfriend, who is Black.
The 19-year-old – who is due to begin her sophomore year at Stanford University this autumn – is one of three children shared by her dad and his ex-wife Melinda.
Microsoft founder Bill, 66, and Melinda, 57, also share daughter Jennifer, 26, and son Rory, 23.
Youngest Phoebe recently shared a sweet photo, showing her rumoured boyfriend kissing her on the cheek as she smiled.
She posted the snap to both her Instagram Story and her feed, but the post on her main page has since been deleted, perhaps after she read the comments.
Phoebe did not name the guy in the photo, nor did she tag him or confirm that they are dating, but she did write two red heart emoji over the pic.
Sadly, the sweet post was infiltrated by trolls, who made racist remarks following the idea of Phoebe dating a Black man.
Many made comments about the rumoured beau using Phoebe for her money, since her father is worth an eye-watering $124.4billion (£103bn).
The trolls also moved over to Twitter, with one person writing: ‘Her net worth projected $130 Billion. I don’t think he is her equal or they are doing 50/50. Just my guess tho.’
Others suggested that the teen is only supposedly dating a Black man to be ‘trendy’.
‘Bill about to smash a vase against the wall,’ someone else commented.
However, supporters were quick to jump to the rumoured couple’s defence, with one person tweeting: ‘Why does a planet of social media bigots think a young woman, who’s father has nearly half the money on the planet, cares about their opinion?’, while another encouraged trolls to ‘leave the girl alone.’
Phoebe is yet to acknowledge the comments.
Most recently, she spoke out against the Supreme Court following their ruling to reverse Roe v. Wade and restrict access to safe abortions.
Phoebe shared a series of photos of herself wearing a white bikini, days before the decision was made, proudly declaring: ‘I’m not shy about my body and/or telling you to keep your bans off of it.’
She added: ‘Every person deserves access to sexual and reproductive health care. Right now, the Supreme Court is prepared to end the constitutional right to abortion. Join me and the fashion community to send a clear message.’
Phoebe then tagged Planned Parenthood and used the hashtag #BansOffOurBodies.
Her post received thousands of likes, with older sister Jennifer showing her support by commenting: ‘Yessss P ?❤️’.
Bill and Melinda Gates , stating that they ‘no longer believe we can grow together.’
After 27 years together, the married couple announced: ‘After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage.’
They added that they had ‘raised three incredible children’ and ‘built a foundation that works all over the world to enable all people to lead healthy, productive lives’, referring to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Bill Gates reps have been contacted for comment.
