Bill Gates has said he was “foolish” to spend time with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, expressing regret in his first interview since the release of the latest tranche of Epstein-related files by the United States Department of Justice.
The billionaire technology entrepreneur and co-founder of Microsoft also denied allegations contained in the documents suggesting he contracted a s3xually transmitted disease after alleged encounters with Russian women.
The claim appeared in a draft email dated 2013, which Epstein is said to have written to himself and which later surfaced in the newly released files.
In the document, Epstein allegedly claimed that he had been asked to arrange antibiotics for Gates to secretly give to his then wife. Responding to the allegation, Gates dismissed the email as false.
“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?”
Reflecting on his association with Epstein, Gates added: “Every minute I spent with him, I regret, and I apologise that I did that.”
The remarks come after Gates’ former wife, Melinda Gates, publicly addressed the controversy for the first time. Speaking on an NPR podcast, she said: “I’m so happy to be away from all the muck.”
She added that the allegations brought back “very, very painful” memories from her marriage and said her former husband “needs to answer” questions arising from the scandal.
The couple divorced in 2021 after 27 years of marriage, with Melinda Gates later saying that her ex-husband’s affairs and his relationship with Epstein were significant factors in the breakdown of the marriage.
In an interview with 9News, Gates confirmed that he met Epstein in 2011 and said they had several dinners over a period of about three years.
However, he insisted that he never visited Epstein’s private island and denied having any inappropriate relationships with women connected to the financier.
Describing Epstein at the time, Gates said: “He knew a lot of very rich people. He was saying he could get them to give money to global health. In retrospect, that was a dead end.”
Gates has pledged to donate his entire personal wealth through the Gates Foundation, an endowment estimated at around $200 billion, to efforts aimed at eradicating disease and improving global health.
He again characterised his interactions with Epstein as a serious mistake. “It was foolish,” Gates said, adding that he is among “many people who regret ever knowing him”.
The renewed scrutiny follows the release of millions of pages of Epstein-related records by the US Justice Department last week.
According to the files, Epstein wrote a lengthy message to himself on July 18, 2013, expressing anger at Gates for ending their association and making a series of unproven allegations.
The documents also suggest Epstein may have been drafting a letter intended to be sent by Boris Nikolic, a senior adviser to Gates at the time, who later resigned from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
In one passage, Epstein allegedly wrote: “To add insult to the injury you then implore me to please delete the emails regarding your std, your request that I provide you antibiotics that you can surreptitiously give to Melinda and the description of your pen!s.”
In another alleged draft, Epstein claimed he had been asked to assist Gates in matters ranging from “morally inappropriate” to “ethically unsound”, though these claims remain unsubstantiated.
The files also include undated photographs showing Epstein and Gates together with women whose identities have been redacted.
Gates has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and said the documents would ultimately show that his association with Epstein “has nothing to do with that kind of behaviour”. Epstein d!ed in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal s3x-trafficking charges.
Bill Gates has not been accused of criminal conduct by any of Epstein’s victims, and his appearance in the files does not imply illegal activity.
