Judge Judy says she's going to have a 'Bill and Melinda Gates divorce' with CBS

• Judge Judy Sheindlin detailed her relationship with CBS to The Wall Street Journal.
• Sheindlin said CBS "disrespected" her show "Hot Bench" after it launched "The Drew Barrymore Show."
• In March 2020, it was announced the "Judge Judy" show would end after 25 years on the air.

Judge Judy Sheindlin got candid about her tensions with CBS before the end of her titular daytime show.

In a new interview with The Wall Street Journal, Sheindlin opened up about her departure from the network. In March 2020, Sheindlin revealed that her well-known show, "Judge Judy," would end after 25 years on the air.

Sheindlin, 78, reportedly felt slighted by CBS after launching the daytime talk show, "The Drew Barrymore Show."

When "The Drew Barrymore Show" debuted in September 2020, "some CBS stations in major markets made room for it by moving the court show "Hot Bench" to their secondary channels," The Journal reported. The outlet noted that "Hot Bench" amassed 2.3 million viewers this season while "The Drew Barrymore Show" measured in at 719,000.

"You disrespected my creation," Sheindlin said, referring to the network. "And you were wrong. Not only in disrespecting my creation, but your gamble in what you put in its place."

Sheindlin went on to compare her split with CBS to the high-profile divorce between Bill and Melinda Gates.

"We had a nice marriage," she told The Journal. "It's going to be a Bill and Melinda Gates divorce."

In a statement to The Journal, CBS Ventures president Steve LoCascio said the network had "had an incredibly successful relationship with Judy over the last 25 years."

"It has been an honor representing her show, and just like there has never been another Oprah, there will never be another Judge Judy."

Representatives for CBS and Sheindlin did not immediately return Insider's request for comment.

Sheindlin emerged as one of American's most recognizable TV personalities for her work on "Judge Judy," which made her one of the highest-paid daytime TV hosts for two decades.

She made $47 million every year for only 52 days of filming, and Forbes reported that her net worth is $445 million as of October 2020.

In 2017, Sheindlin sold the 5,200-episode library of "Judge Judy" and the rights to future episodes to CBS for $100 million.

"I've had a 25-year long marriage with CBS and it's been successful. Next year will be our 25th season, silver anniversary. And CBS, I think, sort of felt they wanted to optimally utilize the repeats of my program because now they have 25 years of reruns," Sheindlin said on The Ellen DeGeneres Show last March.

Her next show, "Judy Justice," is scheduled to begin production in late summer and be available on Amazon's IMDb TV.

"I assume that I'll know if 'Judy Justice' bombs," Sheindlin told The Journal. "At this point, I don't need that validation of my footprint."