Bill Gates publicly admitted to having extramarital affairs with two women during his 27-year marriage to Melinda French Gates, and apologized for his association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, during a meeting with employees of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Tuesday. The admissions came in response to mounting scrutiny and questions from the public regarding his relationship with Epstein, and were first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Gates acknowledged traveling on Epstein’s private jet and meeting with him on multiple occasions in Recent York, Germany, France, and Washington D.C., but maintained he did not participate in any criminal activity. “I didn’t participate in anything illegal. I didn’t see anything illegal,” Gates stated, according to the Wall Street Journal. He emphasized he never spent time with Epstein’s victims.
The revelation of the affairs came shortly after his statements regarding Epstein. Gates identified one of the women as a Russian bridge player he met at tournaments, and the other as a Russian nuclear physicist he encountered through his work. The Wall Street Journal previously reported in 2023 about the affair with the bridge player, identified as Mila Antonova.
According to reports, Epstein allegedly attempted to blackmail Gates regarding the relationship with Antonova, threatening to expose the affair to Melinda French Gates. Epstein reportedly wrote to a mutual acquaintance in 2017, stating, “Bill risks going from the richest man to the biggest hypocrite, Melinda becoming the laughingstock of everyone, and the promises of donations disappearing accordingly.” The blackmail attempt centered around a request from Epstein for Gates to establish an endowment fund.
Melinda French Gates had expressed skepticism about Gates’s relationship with Epstein, a sentiment Gates acknowledged during the foundation meeting. “She was right to be skeptical,” he said.
Gates stated he believed his association with Epstein would aid his philanthropic work in global health, but conceded it was a “huge mistake.” He offered apologies to those affected by his actions. “I presented apologies to the other people who are caught in this because of the mistake I made,” he said.
Further complicating the matter, reports indicate Epstein took an active interest in Antonova after her involvement with Gates. The Wall Street Journal reported Epstein met Antonova in 2013, three years after she and Gates began their affair, and subsequently funded her education in computer science. Antonova told the Wall Street Journal she never had a sexual relationship with Epstein and was unsure why he provided financial support, stating he told her he “was rich and wanted to aid people when he could.”
The identity of the nuclear physicist remains undisclosed. The unfolding revelations raise questions about the extent of Epstein’s network and his attempts to leverage information for personal gain.
