Bill Gates admits friendship with Jeffrey Epstein was ‘quite stupid’
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Bill Gates is opening up about past mistakes, with the time he spent with the late sex trafficker and pedohile Jeffrey Epstein near the top of that list.
“In retrospect, I was foolish to spend any time with him,” he said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
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“And he, sort of, got time with various people by spending time with other people,” the billionaire explained.
“So yes, I think I was quite stupid,” Gates continued. “I thought it would help me with global health philanthropy. In fact, it failed to do that, it was just a huge mistake.”
The Microsoft co-founder revealed that due to his association with Epstein — who took his own life in August 2019 while awaiting trial on federal conspiracy and sex trafficking charges — made him more apprehensive about building connections.
“Definitely,” he said, with a laugh. “I mean, are you kidding?”
In 2023, the WSJ reported that the late financier threatened to expose Gates’ alleged affair with a Russian bridge player while he was married to now-ex-wife Melinda French Gates — when Gates was 55 and Mila Antonova was in her 20s — because the billionaire had bailed on a joint charitable fund.
A spokesperson at the time said, “Mr. Gates never had any financial dealings with Epstein. As Bill has said before, it was a mistake to have ever met him.”
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Gates, who is reportedly dating Paula Hurd, the widow of former Oracle executive Mark Hurd, has previously acknowledged that he regretted ever meeting with Epstein.
Ultimately, it was the end of Gates’ marriage that was his biggest mistake.
Gates’ ties to Epstein also allegedly caused a rift between Bill and Melinda, who share three children and two grandkids, and the pair divorced in 2021 after 27 years of marriage.
The former Microsoft exec told the Times U.K. that it’s “the mistake I regret the most.”
He explained that he wanted his relationship with Melinda to be just like his parents’ 45-year marriage.
“I encouraged Melinda to be a little calmer than my mother was, but we were both quite driven,” he detailed.
“I spent more time with the kids than my dad did, but the ratio was still 10 to 1, with Melinda doing most things for the kids,” Gates continued, adding that “she saw me through a lot.”
He put their divorce “at the top” of his list of failures and considers it to be “the mistake I most regret.”
Gates added: “There are others but none that matter.”
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