Bill Gates has said he “regrets” ever knowing Jeffrey Epstein, as his former wife Melinda French Gates alluded to “muck” in their marriage and insisted the Microsoft founder has questions to answer over his relationship with the deceased child sex offender.
Allegations that Gates hid a sexually transmitted disease from his wife after contact with “Russian girls” surfaced in the latest release of the Epstein files. His office immediately issued a statement denouncing the claim as “absolutely absurd and completely false”, but until now Gates, 70, had remained silent.
In an interview with Australian television channel 9News on Wednesday, Gates denied the claim as “false” and suggested Epstein was trying to extort or defame him by writing an email in 2013 that further alleged he subsequently tried to give antibiotics to Melinda secretly. “Apparently, Jeffrey wrote an email to himself. That email was never sent. The email is false,” Gates said. “Every minute I spent with him, I regret, and I apologise that I did that.”
His interview followed comments by his ex-wife to NPR on Tuesday, in which she made clear her disapproval of his friendship with Epstein. “For me, it’s personally hard whenever those details come up, right? Because it brings back memories of some very, very painful times in my marriage,” she told the Wild Card podcast. “Whatever questions remain there … those questions are for those people and for even my ex-husband.”
Gates told 9News he met Epstein in 2011 and had dinner with him on several occasions to discuss investing in scientific ventures. He insisted he never went to Epstein’s private Caribbean island and did not have any relations with any women. “I was foolish to spend time with him. I was one of many people who regret ever knowing him,” he said.
Melinda French Gates, speaking about Epstein’s victims, said: “No girl should ever be put in the situation they were put in by Epstein … It’s beyond heartbreaking.” She said she had “moved on” from a marriage she had to get away from, and was now “happy to be away from all the muck”.
