Microsoft founder Bill Gates apologized Tuesday to staff at his nonprofit Gates Foundation for his ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
During a town hall meeting, Gates acknowledged having two extramarital affairs while married to the foundation’s co-founder, Melinda French Gates. But he denied the women were among Epstein’s victims and said he did not take part in any of his crimes, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
“I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit,” Gates said, according to a recording reviewed by The Journal.
What Gates says happened
Gates has been under scrutiny since the Department of Justice started releasing its files on investigations into sex trafficking allegations involving Epstein and others. In files that were released in December, Gates appeared in a number of pictures with women whose faces were redacted.
Gates told staffers Tuesday the women were Epstein’s assistants and Epstein had asked him to pose for the pictures.
“To be clear, I never spent any time with victims, the women around him,” Gates said, according to The Journal’s report.
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Bill Gates appears with a woman, whose identity has been obscured, in this image from the Epstein estate released by House Oversight Committee Democrats in Washington, D.C., U.S., on December 18, 2025. House Oversight Committee Democrats/Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. REDACTED AREA FROM SOURCE. -
Bill Gates appears with a woman, whose identity has been obscured, in this image from the Epstein estate released by House Oversight Committee Democrats in Washington, D.C., U.S., on December 18, 2025. House Oversight Committee Democrats/Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. REDACTED AREA FROM SOURCE.
Gates said he met with Epstein in 2011, three years after the financier pleaded guilty in Florida to soliciting a minor for prostitution. Gates said he didn’t check Epstein’s background and he knew only about some “18-month thing” that limited Epstein’s ability to travel.
He also said Melinda French Gates raised concerns over Epstein in 2013, but he continued to meet with him, anyway.
“To give her credit, she was always kind of skeptical about the Epstein thing,” Gates reportedly said.
He apologized for bringing Gates Foundation executives into meetings with Epstein, saying, “It was a huge mistake to spend time with Epstein.”
Gates said he continued meeting with Epstein through 2014, flying on a private jet and spending time with him in Germany, France, New York and Washington. However, he said he never stayed overnight at Epstein’s homes and never visited Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean.
Affairs and STI concerns
Among the millions of pages of Epstein files were emails in which he alleges Gates contracted a sexually transmitted infection from “sex with Russian girls.” One email suggested Gates sought to obtain antibiotics to treat the infection and to “surreptitiously give” them to his now ex-wife.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Gates admitted to having two affairs with Russian women that Epstein found out about, but said the women were not victims of Epstein.
When the emails were released, a spokesperson for Gates said, “These claims are absolutely absurd and completely false. The only thing these documents demonstrate is Epstein’s frustration that he did not have an ongoing relationship with Gates and the lengths he would go to entrap and defame.”
In a recent interview, Melinda French Gates addressed those allegations, without confirming or denying details. She told NPR the documents released by the Justice Department filled her with “unbelievable sadness.”
“For me, it’s personally hard whenever those details come up, right?” she said. “Because it brings back memories of some very, very painful times in my marriage.”