Bill Gates Admits to Affairs and Apologizes for Relationship with Jeffrey Epstein

Bill Gates took full responsibility for his controversial ties to Jeffrey Epstein during a semi-annual 'town hall' meeting with employees of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The billionaire gave extensive explanations after the U.S. Department of Justice published a new batch of documents related to the investigation into the deceased financier and sex offender. Gates's name appeared repeatedly in these files, forcing him to break his silence and confront the staff of his own philanthropic organization. During an emotional speech, Gates admitted that maintaining contact with Jeffrey Epstein after his conviction in 2008 was a mistake that cast a shadow over the foundation's reputation. Importantly, the entrepreneur also confessed that during his marriage to Melinda French Gates he had two affairs with Russian women: a professional bridge player and a nuclear physicist. The billionaire emphasized that these women were not part of Epstein's circle of victims, although the financier learned about these relationships and tried to use this knowledge in the mid-2010s to pressure the Microsoft founder. Gates's relations with Epstein have been controversial since 2019, when their numerous meetings were first revealed, which, according to media reports, was one of the main reasons for the billionaire's divorce in 2021.Despite admitting to personal and reputational mistakes, Gates firmly distanced himself from Epstein's criminal activities. He assured his employees that he never visited the financier's private island and that their meetings concerned only charitable projects. He also addressed photos from the court files, explaining that photographs with women whose faces were blurred were taken at Epstein's request with his assistants and were not of an abusive nature. The billionaire declared his desire to rebuild trust within the foundation and focus on future challenges related to global health and artificial intelligence. „Spending time with Epstein was a huge mistake. I apologize to other people who are drawn into this because of the mistake that I made.” — Bill Gates Revealed email records show that Epstein, in his private correspondence, made accusations regarding Gates's private life, including an alleged sexually transmitted disease, which the billionaire described as completely false. While the emails suggest the financier had knowledge of Gates's infidelity, there is no evidence confirming that he actually helped him hide it. While Gates's spokespeople deny some of these revelations as attempts at defamation, the admission of infidelity and poor social decisions constitutes the billionaire's strongest statement on the matter to date.