Bill Gates speaks during the Global Fund's Seventh Replenishment Conference. ( AP)
Bill Gates has said he regrets ever knowing Jeffrey Epstein, after new attention on his past meetings with the disgraced financier. Speaking to Australia’s 9News, the Microsoft co-founder said claims linking him to misconduct were false and that spending time with Epstein was a mistake.
“I regret every minute I spent with him,” Gates said. “I apologise that I did that.” His comments came after his former wife, Melinda French Gates, spoke publicly about the impact of Epstein’s links on their marriage, saying Gates must answer questions about the relationship.
What Bill Gates said
Gates rejected allegations from newly released Epstein-related documents that he hid a sexually transmitted disease from his wife. His office described the claims as false.
Addressing one specific allegation, Gates said Epstein had written an email to himself that was never sent.
Bill Gates and Melinda Gates in 1998 (Photo: FB@gatesfoundation)
“That email is false,” he said, adding he did not know why Epstein wrote it and suggested it may have been meant to harm him.
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Gates said he met Epstein in 2011 and had dinner with him several times to discuss funding for global health projects. He said he never visited Epstein’s private island and had no sexual relationships connected to Epstein.
“In retrospect, that was a dead end,” Gates said.
What Melinda French Gates said
In an interview with NPR, Melinda French Gates said the renewed focus on Epstein brought back painful memories from their marriage, which ended in divorce in 2021 after 27 years.
“There are questions that remain, and those questions are for those people, and for even my ex-husband,” she said. “They need to answer to those things, not me.”
She described her current life as being free from “the muck” she felt she had to leave behind.
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The comments come as public scrutiny continues over Epstein’s connections with powerful figures, years after his death in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. The renewed attention has also prompted political calls in the US for further investigation, including demands that Gates testify before Congress.
Melinda French Gates said the focus should remain on Epstein’s victims. “No girl should ever have been put in that situation,” she said.
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Bill Gates speaks during the Global Fund's Seventh Replenishment Conference. ( AP) 
