Bill Gates has admitted to having an extramarital affair with two women and addressed his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.
On Tuesday (Feb. 24), the billionaire benefactor and Microsoft co-founder, 70, held a Gates Foundation event where he discussed cheating on his ex-wife Melinda French Gates, 61, with two Russian women. The ex-spouses were married from 1994 to 2021 and share three children.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the businessman recalled having an affair with a "Russian bridge player” whom he encountered at “bridge events” and a “Russian nuclear physicist” he “met through business activities."
The Journal identified the “bridge player” as Mila Antonova and reported that the woman met Gates around 2010 when she was in her 20s. Epstein, who died by suicide while in his jail cell in August 2019, reportedly knew of Gates’ affairs.
Gates also claimed that he "he never spent any time” with Epstein’s victims, referencing the sex offender’s trafficking ring. The philanthropist called it a "huge mistake to spend time with Epstein,” whom he met in 2011, and denied that he had stayed at the financier’s island estates.
The tech billionaire acknowledged that he did not closely look into Epstein’s criminal history; the controversial figure pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution in 2008.
“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,” Gates said.
Gates also credited his ex-wife with giving him the push to speak on his connection to Epstein.
"For me, it's personally hard whenever those details come up, right? Because it brings back memories of some very, very painful times in my marriage," Melinda Gates said this month on NPR’s Wild Card about her ex-husband’s and Epstein’s unearthed communications.
"Whatever questions remain there of what—I can't even begin to know all of it—those questions are for those people and for even my ex-husband," she continued. "They need to answer to those things, not me."