Bill Gates Apologizes to Gates Foundation Staff for Ties to Epstein, Admits to Affairs

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates apologized to staff at his philanthropic foundation for his ties to Jeffrey Epsteintelling attendees at a Gates Foundation town hall on Tuesday that the mistakes he made had overshadowed the group’s work, but denied that he was complicit in or had knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.

Although he did not directly confirm the apology, a Gates Foundation spokesperson told News themezone that Gates “answered questions submitted by foundation staff on a variety of topics, including the release of the Epstein files, the foundation’s work in AI, and the future of global health. At the town hall, Bill spoke candidly, addressed several questions in detail, and took responsibility for his actions.”

The Wall Street Journal first reported the billionaire’s apology on Tuesday, saying it had reviewed a recording of his comments.

“It was a big mistake to spend time with Epstein,” Gates said, according to the Journal. “I apologize to other people who were involved in this for the mistake I made.”

“I didn’t do anything illegal. I didn’t see anything illegal,” Gates said, according to the newspaper.

Gates said he first met Epstein in 2011, three years after the late financier’s conviction on state charges that included soliciting a minor for prostitution, which sentenced him to 18 months of detention in a minimum-security facility. Gates told staff he was aware of something “18 months old” that had limited Epstein’s travel, but said he did not thoroughly examine his background, according to the Journal.

“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 that there was ongoing bad behavior,” the newspaper quoted him as saying. Gates also praised his ex-wife and foundation co-founder, Melinda French Gates, who he said had always been “skeptical” of Epstein.

The Journal said Gates told staff that he continued meeting with Epstein until 2014, including taking a flight on a private jet and spending time with him in Germany, France, New York and Washington, but that he strenuously denied spending the night at a location with Epstein or visiting the convicted sex offender’s private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Among the many Epstein-related documents released by the US Department of Justice, Two emails Epstein sent to himself dated July 18, 2013, contain unverified allegations that Gates had “extramarital sexual relations with Russian girls” that resulted in a sexually transmitted infection that required treatment with antibiotics. In an email, Epstein claimed that Gates also tried to “surreptitiously give antibiotics” to his then-wife Melinda Gates.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Gates admitted to City Hall staff on Tuesday that he “had affairs, one with a Russian bridge player who met me at bridge events, and another with a Russian nuclear physicist whom I met through business activities.”

Bill and Melinda Gates divorced in 2021 after 27 years of marriage. Earlier this month, French Gates said on an NPR podcast that she felt “incredibly sad” that her ex-husband’s name appeared in Epstein’s files.

“For me, it’s personally difficult whenever those details come up, right? Because it brings back memories of very, very painful times in my marriage,” she said.

Gates also said Tuesday that his relationship with Epstein had distracted him from his foundation’s philanthropic work, and that he had maintained the relationship with the disgraced financier in hopes of raising money for global health, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Epstein “talked about the kind of intimate relationship he had with a lot of billionaires, particularly Wall Street billionaires,” Gates said, adding that Epstein had other prestigious people at these meetings who “made it easier for me to feel that this was a normalized situation.”

The Gates Foundation issued a statement earlier this month acknowledging exchanges between foundation staff and Epstein that were made public by the Justice Department.

“Based on Epstein’s claims that he could mobilize significant philanthropic resources for global health and development, a small number of foundation employees interacted with Epstein to try to secure this potential funding. Ultimately, the foundation did not seek any collaboration with Epstein and no fund was ever created. At no time did the foundation make financial payments to Epstein, nor was he an employee of the foundation at any time,” the foundation said in the statement, adding that it “regrets that any employee interacted with Epstein in any way.”