Melinda French Gates had a heartbreaking response when she was asked for her reaction to ex-husband Bill Gates appearing prominently in the latest Jeffrey Epstein files dump.
One of the more shocking allegations in the latest release of documents is found in draft emails written by Epstein in 2013 to himself, in which he alleges the Microsoft founder caught a sexually transmitted infection from “Russian girls.”
One email has “Bill” as the subject line. In it, Epstein claims he gave a person of that name antibiotics for an STI.
“To add insult to the injury you then subsequently with tears in your eyes, implore me to please delete the emails regarding your std, your request that I provide you antibiotics that you can surreptitiously give to Melinda, and the description of your penis,” the email read.
A Gates spokesperson told People the claims in the draft emails “are absolutely absurd and completely false” and added that “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.”
In an interview with the NPR podcast “Wild Card” set to air in full Thursday, French Gates said the latest Epstein files document release brought her “unbelievable sadness.”
French Gates first reacted to the latest revelations from a big-picture standpoint.
“I think we’re having a reckoning as a society, right? No girl, no girl should ever be put in the situation that they were put in by Epstein and whatever was going on with all of the various people around him,” she told host Rachel Martin.
She then revealed how the latest revelations have affected her personally.
“It’s beyond heartbreaking, right? I remember being those ages those girls were. I remember my daughters being those ages,” French Gates said. “So for me, it’s personally hard whenever those details come up, right, because [it] brings back memories of some very, very painful times in my marriage, but I have moved on from that.”
French Gates also suggested that the people connected to Epstein ― like her ex ― have a lot to still answer for.
“Whatever questions remain there of what I don’t — 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.”
She added that she’s “so happy to be away from all the muck that was there.”
Melinda and Bill Gates were married for 27 years before separating in 2021, and she later admitted to CBS News that his relationship with Epstein was a factor.
“I did not like that he’d had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein, no,” she said. “I made that clear to him. … [Epstein] was abhorrent. He was evil personified. I had nightmares about it afterward.”
