Bill Gates Calls Meeting With Jeffrey Epstein A 'Mistake' — Why Their Friendship May Have Pushed Melinda To Ask For A Divorce
Melinda met with divorce attorneys right after details of Bill's Epstein ties emerged.
Getty Images Bill Gates and Jeffrey Epstein's friendship is under scrutiny once again — this time by Gates himself.
Gates’s relationship with Epstein was widely speculated to be a central cause in his divorce from was Melinda Gates — which was finalized this week.
Now, Gates has addressed his ties to the suspected child sex trafficker in a conversation with Anderson Cooper. And though he may have been trying to put speculation on his marriage to rest, he's likely stirred up more questions than answers.
Gates says he met with Epstein in the hopes of securing billions in philantropic aid from the fianacier's wealthy contacts but says the money never transpired, ending their relationship.
"It was a huge mistake to spend time with him, to give him the credibility of being there," Gates said.
However, what he describes as "several dinners" are reported to be much more questionable encounters that may have caused his divorce.
Did Bill Gates and Jeffrey Epstein's friendship cause Melinda to file for divorce?
Gates didn't address whether his ties to Epstein had pushed Melinda to divorce but but friends of the couple have previously implied that was the case.
Gates’s tie to Epstein reportedly “still haunts” his wife, who warned him to avoid the convicted sex offender in 2013.
Melinda is thought to have met with divorce lawyers in October 2019. Around the same time, a New York Times article detailed a night that Gates spent at Epstein’s mansion back in 2011.
So, what exactly was the extent of Gates and Epstein's friendship?
Bill Gates once stayed at Jeffrey Epstein’s mansion.
Gates is believed to have first met Epstein in 2011, 3 years after Epstein plead guilty to soliciting a minor for sex.
He emailed his colleagues after the meeting to say, "His lifestyle is very different and kind of intriguing although it would not work for me."
He also mentioned “staying quite late,” after meeting “a very attractive Swedish woman and her daughter.” This is reported to be Epstein’s ex-girlfriend, Eva Andersson-Dubin, and her fifteen-year-old daughter.
However, a spokesperson for Gates said the comments referred to Epstein’s unique decor and “was in no way meant to convey a sense of interest or approval" toward the two women.
Melinda and Bill Gates met Epstein in 2013.
Gates met with the disgraced businessman at his Upper East Side home again in 2013, this time with his wife.
She was allegedly furious that Gates was associating with Epstein. It's said that Gates took a flight on Epstein’s jet and met with him at his mansion on another occasion in that same year.
As the federal charges against Epstein, for sex trafficking minors, were building in 2019, Gates clarified their relationship.
“I met him. I didn’t have any business relationship or friendship with him,” he said, claiming he was advised to connect with Epstein in order to raise money for his philanthropic ventures.
He also said he didn’t attend any of Epstein’s infamous parties nor did Epstein ever donate money to his foundations.
Epstein reportedly advised Gates to divorce Melinda.
Sources claiming to have attended some of the "dozens" of meetings between Gates and Epstein at the infamous New York mansion say Melinda was a frequent conversation topic.
Epstein allegedly told Gates his marriage was "toxic" and Gates reveled in the advice.
"Going to Jeffrey’s was a respite from his marriage. It was a way of getting away from Melinda,” a source claims. However, Gates denies ever complaining about his wife to Epstein.
Gates’s meeting with Epstein was allegedly a "turning point" in his marriage.
According to The Daily Beast, her husband's interactions with Epstein were a “turning point” in which Melinda began to view their marriage differently.
The ties are said to have made Melinda uneasy. One associate in the technology industry told the outlet that most people close to Epstein had some level of knowledge about his pedophilia and his sex trafficking ring.
“If you ask Bill Gates, he’ll say, ‘Oh I had absolutely no idea he wasn’t up to anything of the highest moral character.’ But I seriously doubted Epstein’s moral character,” the source said.
Epstein took his own life in August 2019 in his jail cell, one month after being arrested on federal charges of sex trafficking minors in Florida and New York.
Ten days later, the case against him was officially dismissed. However, there is still an ongoing investigation into potential co-conspirators.
The case has raised question marks about many of Epstein’s associations with friends and public figures like Prince Andrew and Ghislaine Maxwell.
Alice Kelly is a writer living in Brooklyn, New York. Catch her covering all things social justice, news, and entertainment. Keep up with her Twitter for more.