Bill Gates: My Betrayal of Melinda Had Nothing to Do With Jeffrey Epstein

In emails revealed by the Justice Department last February, documents were found in which sex offender Jeffrey Epstein claimed that Bill Gates contracted a sexually transmitted disease from girls he spent time with. Shortly afterward, the billionaire admitted that he had indeed cheated on his wife, Melinda Gates, with two women. "I had two affairs. One with a Russian bridge player I met at a bridge event, and the other with a Russian nuclear physicist I met through business activities."

Last night (Wednesday), Gates was questioned and testified in Congress on the Epstein affair, saying, "I learned that Epstein was exposed to sensitive information about my personal life, including the fact that I had cheated on my then-wife. These matters have nothing to do with my interactions with Epstein, but they are very painful for my family," he said.

"I remember being aware that Epstein was dealing with legal issues, but I did not understand the extent of the crimes he committed. I got the background, but I did not do the checks I should have done."

Gates also claimed that his interactions with the pedophile were "limited," and testified that he cut off all contact with him in 2014. Gates said that Epstein exploited what he knew about his infidelity to his wife, "along with many lies added to that," in an attempt to draw him back into his circle.

"He did not succeed, but it shows some of the ways he tried to leverage his connections with me to advance his schemes. I should never have met with Epstein in the first place," he clarified.

The billionaire was summoned to testify before Congress after photographs and email correspondence included in Epstein's files revealed new and surprising aspects of his past relationship with the financier. In one of the messages, Epstein claimed that Gates planned to secretly give Melinda antibiotics to treat the sexually transmitted disease he contracted from the women with whom he cheated on her.

"To make matters worse, afterward, with tears in your eyes, you begged me to delete the emails concerning your sexually transmitted disease. You asked me to provide you with antibiotics that you could secretly give to Melinda, and you even described your genitals," Epstein wrote in the email.

That email was never sent and remained a draft, but it appears to have been written for Boris Nikolic, who previously served as an adviser to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It should be noted that Nikolic resigned as chief adviser in 2014. In 2019, a spokesperson for Nikolic said he had no business relationship with Epstein.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal in February, Gates admitted he first met Epstein in 2011, after Epstein had already been convicted in Florida of soliciting a minor for prostitution, and continued to meet with him, despite his former wife's concerns. "Melinda was always skeptical about Epstein," he admitted. "I apologize to anyone who was harmed by the mistake I made. It is the complete opposite of the foundation's values and goals," he concluded.