Bill Gates has publicly expressed regret over “every minute” he spent with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, amid renewed scrutiny following the release of US Justice Department documents last week.
The documents, part of millions of files related to the Epstein investigation, included emails between Epstein and many high-profile individuals. Some suggested friendships, private dealings, and even disturbing allegations of illicit activities.
In one draft email, Epstein claimed that Gates engaged in extramarital affairs and that he had helped Gates “to get drugs, in order to deal with consequences of sex with Russian girls, to facilitating his illicit trysts with married women.”
Responding to the claims, Gates told 9News Australia, “Every minute I spent with him, I regret, and I apologize. That email was never sent. The email is false. I don’t know what his thinking was there. Was he trying to attack me in some way?”
A spokesperson for Gates echoed this, emphasizing that Epstein’s filings mainly reflected Epstein’s frustration at not having an ongoing relationship with Gates and his attempts to entrap or defame him.
Melinda French Gates, Gates’ ex-wife, shared her perspective with NPR, describing the document release as emotionally painful. “For me, it’s personally hard whenever those details come up,” she said. “Whatever questions remain … those questions are for those people and for even my ex-husband. They need to answer those things, not me.”
Bill Gates noted that he first met Epstein in 2011 and had several dinners with him over three years. He said he never visited Epstein’s Caribbean island and had no personal relations with women through him. “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,” Gates explained.
While Epstein’s files name numerous public figures, inclusion in the documents does not imply wrongdoing. Still, the revelations have reignited questions about the circles Epstein moved in and the nature of those connections.
