Bill Gates has apologised for his association with American billionaire and convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, even as he strongly denied allegations that he hid a sexually transmitted disease from his former wife Melinda French Gates after contact with “Russian girls.”
“Every minute I spent with him, I regret, and I apologise that I did that,” Gates said in an interview with Australian channel 9News on Wednesday, February 4, breaking his silence on the controversy that have surfaced in newly released documents.
The Microsoft founder called the allegations “absolutely absurd and completely false,” suggesting Epstein was trying to extort or defame him by writing an email to himself in 2013 that made the claims.
“Apparently, Jeffrey wrote an email to himself. That email was never sent. The email is false,” Gates said. “I don’t know what his thinking was there. Was he trying to attack me in some way?”
The allegations surfaced in over 3 million pages of files related to the Epstein investigation released by the US Justice Department last week. The documents, which include draft emails Epstein wrote to himself, claim Gates sought his help to facilitate extramarital affairs and obtain antibiotics for a sexually transmitted infection. One email also alleged that Gates tried to secretly give the medication to his wife.
Gates told 9News that he met Epstein in 2011 and had dinner with him on several occasions to discuss investing in proposed scientific ventures. He insisted he never went to Epstein’s private Caribbean island, where girls and young women are alleged to have been abused, and did not have any relations with any women.
“The focus was always, he knew a lot of very rich people, and he was saying he could get them to give money to global health. In retrospect, that was a dead end. I was foolish to spend time with him,” he said.
Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
His comments came a day after French Gates told NPR that her ex-husband has questions to answer over his relationship with Epstein. The philanthropist said reading the new details brought back memories of “very, very painful times” in her marriage.
“Whatever questions remain there, those questions are for those people and for even my ex-husband. They need to answer to those things, not me,” French Gates said in an interview with the radio’s Wild Card podcast.
She added that she had “moved on” from a marriage she said she had to get away from, and was now “in a really unexpected, beautiful place in my life. I’m so happy to be away from all the muck that was there.”The 27-year marriage between Gates and French Gates ended in divorce in 2021.
