'I regret every minute I spent with Jeffrey Epstein', Bill Gates says after STD claims in Epstein Files

Bill Gates

• Bill Gates regrets Epstein ties, denies allegations in emails
• Melinda Gates says Epstein documents bring up painful marriage memories
• Gates claims meetings with Epstein focused on global health fundraising.

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Bill Gates has expressed remorse over his past interactions with Jeffrey Epstein, saying he regrets “every minute” he spent with him, even as his former wife Melinda French Gates said unresolved questions remain about his association with the convicted sexual offender.

The remarks follow the release last week of a new tranche of documents by the US Justice Department related to the Epstein investigation. The files include emails involving Epstein and several high-profile individuals, some of which suggest close personal connections, financial dealings and private exchanges.

One document contains a draft email attributed to Epstein in which he alleged that Gates had engaged in extramarital affairs. In the email, Epstein claimed his involvement with Gates ranged from “helping Bill to get drugs, in order to deal with consequences of sex with russian girls, to facilitating his illicit trysts, with married women.”

In an interview with 9News Australia broadcast on Wednesday, Gates said, “Every minute I spent with him, I regret, and I apologize.”

He rejected the allegations in the draft email, saying, “That email was never sent. The email is false.” Gates added, “I don't know what his thinking was there. Was he trying to attack me in some way?”

A spokesperson for Gates echoed the denial after the release of the documents. “The only thing these documents demonstrate is Epstein's frustration that he did not have an ongoing relationship with Gates and the lengths he would go to entrap and defame,” the spokesperson said.

Melinda French Gates, speaking to US National Public Radio, said the document release resurfaced painful memories from their marriage. “For me, it's personally hard whenever those details come up,” she said, describing them as “memories of some very, very painful times in my marriage.”

She added that any remaining questions should be addressed by those involved. “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. They need to answer to those things, not me.”

The couple divorced in 2021.

Gates told 9News that he first met Epstein in 2011 and had several dinners with him over a three-year period. He said he never visited Epstein’s Caribbean island and denied having relationships with women. “The focus was always, 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,” he said.

Epstein died by suicide in prison in 2019. While the appearance of a name in the Epstein files does not indicate wrongdoing, the documents detail links between Epstein and a number of public figures who have previously minimised or denied such associations.