Nationwide — Bill Gates spoke publicly about renewed attention on his past association with Jeffrey Epstein following a major Department of Justice document release. He admitted spending time with Epstein but said it was a serious mistake he wishes he could undo and denied any involvement in sexual misconduct.
Gates made the comments during an interview with 9News Australia after the DOJ released nearly three million pages connected to Epstein. He said he regretted every interaction with the late convicted sex offender and apologized for his decision to meet with him.
Addressing allegations tied to draft emails Epstein wrote in 2013, Gates rejected them outright. “Apparently, Jeffrey wrote an email to himself. Ah, that email was never sent. The email is false,” he said, according to ABC News. “So, I don’t know what his thinking was there. It just reminds me that every minute I spent with him, I regret, and I apologize I did that.”
Gates said his contact with Epstein was limited to group dinners. “It’s factually true that I was only at dinners. I never went to the island, I never met any women,” he said, referring to Epstein’s private island. He stressed that the meetings had nothing to do with criminal activity.
He explained that he first met Epstein in 2011, several years after Epstein’s 2008 conviction in Florida. Gates said he believed Epstein could introduce him to wealthy donors who might support the Gates Foundation’s global health and poverty efforts.
Looking back, Gates said those expectations went nowhere. “You know, in retrospect, that was a dead end, and I was foolish to spend time with him. I was one of many people who regret ever knowing him.”
His ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, also addressed the issue in a separate NPR interview. She said wealthy men named in the Epstein files should answer questions about their ties to him and noted that the document release brought back painful memories from their marriage, which ended in divorce in 2021.
A spokesperson for Gates later dismissed the claims in the documents, saying they only reflected Epstein’s failed attempts to maintain a relationship with Gates. Gates was in Australia at the time for both personal travel and foundation work focused on preventing childhood diseases.