Phoebe Gates’ exes had trouble computing who her dad is.
In fact, the 22-year-old daughter of Bill Gates and his ex-wife Melinda French Gates revealed that her past boyfriends were intimidated when she would introduce them to her family.
“I think [it’s] terrifying for the guy, but for me? It’s hilarious,” Phoebe said in the April 30 episode of Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast. “My dad’s pretty socially awkward. But for guys, I think they get really wigged out.”
Though the Phia cofounder now finds these first-time interactions “hilarious,” she didn’t always feel that way. Back in high school, Phoebe recalled an embarrassing moment where her dad—who also shares kids Jennifer, 28, and Rory, 25, with Melinda—drove her and her then-boyfriend to a dance.
“First off, my dad insisted on us listening to NPR the entire 30-minute drive,” she recalled. “Then he stopped for fast food.”
Phoebe then noted that Bill—who is now dating Paula Hurd—called her date by the wrong name once he dropped them off. “[I] literally wanted to die,” she remembered. “But now, I think it’s become easier for me because when you introduce a guy to your dad, depending on how he reacts, that’s how you know if he’s gonna be a good guy or not.”
Indeed, it seems she’s found the one, as she hard launched her relationship with Paul McCartney’s grandson, Arthur Alistair Donald, last June. And while Phoebe didn’t reveal if Arthur and Bill had an awkward first introduction, she shared that her dad has become more sociable—partly thanks to her.
“It used to be a joke [that] our family would be so boring if I wasn’t born,” Phoebe explained. “At the dad-daughter dances my mom would have us go to, I forced my dad to go talk to all the other dads and daughters there. I was like, ‘No. If we’re here, we’re gonna socialize. We’ve gotta work this room, Bill.’”
However, there is one area where Bill doesn’t need any guidance.
“You do not want to play a board game with the two of us,” Phoebe continued of her dad. “That’s actually worse than introducing a guy to my dad.”
Keep reading to see more celebrity parents bonding with their look-a-like kids…
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