"It was stupid of me" Bill Gates now talks about his connection to Epstein
For the first time, Bill Gates has spoken at length about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. In an interview, the Microsoft founder speaks of a "dead end" and rejects key accusations.
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- Bill Gates says he met Jeffrey Epstein in 2011 and later regretted the contact.
- He firmly rejects allegations about meetings with women and a visit to an island.
- Gates describes an Epstein email with accusations against him as "false" and "never sent".
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates spoke out on Wednesday in an interview with Australian broadcaster 9News about his former association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Gates is self-critical - and at the same time rejects key accusations.
He met Epstein in 2011, says Gates. "He knew a lot of very rich people and claimed that he could get them to donate money to global health projects," explains the billionaire. In retrospect, this approach failed: "In hindsight, it was a dead end."
Gates speaks openly of a mistake. "It was stupid of me to spend time with him," he says. "I'm one of many people who regret ever having met him." He regrets every encounter with Epstein today: "I regret every minute I spent with him, and I apologize for it."
Gates rejects accusations
In the most recently published Epstein files, an email appears in which it is claimed that Gates organized meetings with women via Epstein and contracted a sexually transmitted disease in the process. Gates firmly rejects this claim. "Apparently Jeffrey wrote an e-mail to himself," he says. "This email was never sent. The email is false."
He does not know what Epstein's intention was. "I don't know what he was thinking," says Gates. "It just reminds me that I regret every minute I spent with him."
Gates also rejects reports of a visit to Epstein's infamous private island. "I was never on the island," he says in the interview. "I didn't meet any women."
Gates' former wife Melinda French Gates had also publicly commented on the new revelations. According to 9News, she told US broadcaster NPR that the allegations reminded her of "very, very painful" times in their marriage. Gates' meetings with Epstein were one of the main reasons for the divorce, which was finalized in 2021.
Bill and Melinda Gates married in 1994 and together founded the Gates Foundation, which has reportedly given more than 100 billion dollars to charity since its inception.
