Billionaire Bill Gates told employees at a town hall on Tuesday that long-standing rumors of two love affairs that resurfaced in the Epstein files were true.
“I did have affairs, one with a Russian bridge player who met me at bridge events, and one with a Russian nuclear physicist who I met through business activities,” Gates told staff at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, according to The Wall Street Journal.
While apologizing to employees over his past association with pedophile sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, Gates denied any further involvement: “I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit.”
Gates has come under renewed and mounting scrutiny over his past ties to Epstein after the Justice Department released a new batch of case files on Jan. 30.
Among the newly disclosed materials are messages, dated years after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor, in which the disgraced financier appeared to claim he had arranged “sex with Russian girls” on Gates’ behalf.
One draft also referenced a sexually transmitted disease allegedly connected to one of those encounters and discussed secretly administering antibiotics to Gates’ then-wife, Melinda French Gates. There is no evidence that the emails were ever sent to Bill Gates, who has categorically denied the allegations.
The latest disclosures also showed Epstein threatened to expose Gates’ affair with Russian bridge player Mila Antonova in 2017, after Gates’ then-science adviser, Boris Nikolic, told him about the affairs.
Emails indicate that Epstein inserted himself into Nikolic’s departure negotiations from Gates’ private office, using knowledge of the affairs to pressure Gates. Epstein also paid for the bridge player’s coding-school tuition and later asked Gates to reimburse him.
At Tuesday’s town hall, Gates also commented on photographs in the newly released Epstein files that show him with women whose faces were obscured. He explained that the images were taken at Epstein’s request, with the help of Epstein’s assistants, following their meetings. “To be clear I never spent any time with victims, the women around him,” Gates said.
“It was a huge mistake to spend time with Epstein” and bring Gates Foundation executives into meetings with the sex offender, Gates said. “I apologize to other people who are drawn into this because of the mistake that I made.”
Gates has previously acknowledged meeting Epstein in 2011—years after Epstein had pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting a minor for prostitution—and attending several dinners with him over the following years, but has maintained that the interactions were solely related to philanthropy.
Gates’ ex-wife Melinda French Gates previously said that her ex-husband’s association with Epstein was one of the reasons for their divorce.
During the town hall, the Microsoft co-founder acknowledged that he had continued interacting with Epstein despite knowing of past allegations against him and despite concerns expressed by his then-wife in 2013.
Gates confirmed that he met with Epstein through 2014, traveling with him to locations including Germany, France, New York, and Washington, and even flying on Epstein’s private jet.
But he emphasized that he never stayed overnight or visited Epstein’s private island, and noted that the presence of other prominent figures at these meetings contributed to a sense of normalization. Gates also acknowledged that his interactions inadvertently helped Epstein bolster his public reputation.
“Knowing what I know now makes it, you know, a hundred times worse in terms of not only his crimes in the past, but now it’s clear there was ongoing bad behavior,” he said.
He added that the recent revelations had cast a shadow over the Gates Foundation. “It definitely is the opposite of the values of the Foundation and the goals of the Foundation,” he said. “And our work is very reputational sensitive. I mean, people can choose to work with us or not work with us.”
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