Melinda French Gates has discussed the role Jeffrey Epstein played in the demise of her marriage to husband Bill Gates.
The billionaire couple was together for a lengthy 27 years, and from the outside, Melinda and Bill appeared to have an ideal marriage. However, Melinda has now admitted that there were a number of problems with their marriage, and one of them was Bill’s relationship with disgraced financier and convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein.
In a wide-ranging interview with Gayle King on CBS Mornings, the former Mrs. Gates spoke about disliking that Bill had meetings with Epstein. She said, “I did not like that he [Bill] had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein,” and she claimed that she’d made her feelings clear to Bill.
Melinda Gates ‘regretted’ meeting Jeffrey Epstein
Melinda admitted that she had once met with Epstein herself but claimed it was only on one occasion and only because she “wanted to see who this man was.” Unsurprisingly, Melinda regretted the meeting: “I regretted it the second I walked in the door. He was abhorrent. He was evil personified. My heart breaks for these women.”
Bill Gates has called his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein a “mistake.” According to Page Six, the billionaire Microsoft co-founder said, “Meeting with Epstein was a mistake that I regret deeply. It was a substantial error in [judgment].”
Jeffrey Epstein was a financier and a convicted sex offender who was arrested by federal officers in July 2019 on charges of sex trafficking. He committed suicide in his Manhattan jail cell a few weeks later.
Epstein’s case has been notable due to the high number of well-known celebrities and politicians that he was allegedly linked with; these have included Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, and Prince Andrew.
Melinda French Gates also discussed Bill Gates’ alleged affair
In the interview with CBS Mornings, Melinda also addressed Bill’s alleged affair with an employee. She stated that she thought they had managed to work through the affair, but unfortunately, there were just too many problems with the marriage, and that was why the relationship came to an end.
“I certainly believe in forgiveness, so I thought we had worked through some of that,” Melinda explained. “It wasn’t one moment or one specific thing that happened. There just came a point in time where there was enough there where I realized it just wasn’t healthy, and I couldn’t trust what we had.”
At the time of their break-up, Melinda and Bill reportedly had a whopping $145 billion fortune. The couple founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000, which is one of the largest charities in the world and focuses on poverty, disease, and education. It is still in operation despite the split.