Bill Gates Admits to Affairs with 2 Russian Women While Married to Melinda and Apologizes to Staff for Past Epstein Ties
Bill Gates spoke candidly this week about past personal missteps, including two affairs he had while married to Melinda French Gates, and addressed his former ties to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The 70-year-old Microsoft co-founder apologized to staff at the Gates Foundation for his past association with Epstein, while emphasizing that he had not engaged in anything “illicit.” “I did nothing illicit.
"I saw nothing illicit,” Gates said during a town hall for his foundation on Tuesday, February 24, according to a recording reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
A spokesperson for Gates confirmed that the town hall was part of a routine meeting he holds twice a year with employees.
“Bill answered questions submitted by foundation staff on a range of issues, including the release of the Epstein files, the foundation’s work in AI, and the future of global health,” the spokesperson said.
“In the town hall, Bill spoke candidly, addressing several questions in detail, and took responsibility for his actions.”
Renewed attention on Gates’ connection to Epstein follows the release of documents by the U.S. Justice Department, which included draft emails written by Epstein.
Some of these emails claimed Gates had contracted a sexually transmitted infection from “Russian girls” and sought Epstein’s help to conceal it from his then-wife. Gates’ team had previously described such claims as “absolutely absurd and completely false.”
However, during the town hall, Gates admitted to having affairs with two Russian women, one a bridge player he met at tournaments, and the other a nuclear physicist he met through professional activities.
He confirmed that Epstein knew about these relationships. The bridge player was identified in 2023 as Mila Antonova, who reportedly met Gates around 2010 in her 20s.
Gates reassured staff that he never spent time with Epstein’s victims or the women associated with him. He acknowledged that spending time with Epstein, whom he first met in 2011 after Epstein had pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor, was “a huge mistake.” He said their interactions lasted until 2014, but he never stayed overnight at Epstein’s residences or island properties.
“I apologize to other people who are drawn into this because of the mistake that I made,” Gates said. He also noted that his initial engagement with Epstein was intended to secure charitable donations. “The focus was always that he knew a lot of very rich people, and he was saying he could get them to give money to global health. In retrospect, that was a dead end.”
Reflecting on his awareness of Epstein’s history, Gates admitted that he did not properly verify Epstein’s background at the time, though he was aware of some restrictions from an “18-month thing” that limited Epstein’s travel. “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.
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