Microsoft founder Bill Gates had an affair with a female staff member in 2000, and resigned while an investigation into the relationship was being investigated by the company board. Gates, 64, quit the board suddenly in 2020 - months after the woman, a Microsoft engineer, wrote to the board detailing the relationship. The Microsoft board decided that Gates should step down from the board after the relationship was deemed to be inappropriate, the Wall Street Journal reported. A Microsoft spokesman told the Wall Street Journal: 'Microsoft received a concern in the latter half of 2019 that Bill Gates sought to initiate an intimate relationship with a company employee in the year 2000. 'A committee of the Board reviewed the concern, aided by an outside law firm to conduct a thorough investigation. Throughout the investigation, Microsoft provided extensive support to the employee who raised the concern.' A spokeswoman for Gates said his decision to leave the board had nothing to do with the affair. 'There was an affair almost 20 years ago which ended amicably.' The spokeswoman told the Journal his 'decision to transition off the board was in no way related to this matter. In fact, he had expressed an interest in spending more time on his philanthropy starting several years earlier.'