"The focus was always on the fact that he knew a lot of very wealthy people and said he could get them to give money for global health. Looking back, I can say that was a dead end," Gates said in the interview.
Bill Gates stated that he regrets "every minute" spent with the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, denying allegations contained in drafts of emails released by U.S. authorities last week.
"I regret every minute I spent with him, and I apologize," Gates said in an interview with Australian broadcaster 9News that aired on Wednesday.
After the U.S. Department of Justice released nearly 3 million new pages of documents related to Epstein last week, drafts of emails emerged containing claims about Gates.
"Clearly, Jeffrey wrote a letter to himself. That letter was never sent. That letter is a lie," Gates said. "I don’t know what he was thinking. Was he trying to somehow attack me?"
In one draft he wrote in 2013, Epstein accused Gates of extramarital affairs, stating that his relationship with Gates ranged from "helping Bill get medications to deal with the aftermath of having sex with Russian women to facilitating his secret meetings with married women."
"To top it all off, you subsequently tearfully begged me to delete emails regarding your venereal disease, your request for antibiotics that you could secretly pass to Melinda, and descriptions of your genitalia," the letter stated.
A representative for Gates said the documents only reflect "Epstein’s frustration over the lack of a lasting relationship with Gates and the lengths he was willing to go to frame him and tarnish his reputation."
Melinda French Gates told NPR in an interview set to air on Thursday that seeing the documents reminded her of "very, very painful moments in her marriage." The couple divorced in 2021.
"Whatever questions remain - I can’t even begin to know all of this - those are questions for those people and even for my ex-husband. They need to answer them, not me," she said.
French Gates previously stated that her ex-husband’s connection to Epstein influenced her decision to end the marriage.
Gates said he first met Epstein in 2011 - three years after Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida to soliciting a minor for prostitution - and attended dinners with him for three years. He stated that he never visited Epstein’s private island and denies any sexual contact.
"The focus was always on the fact that he knew a lot of very wealthy people and said he could get them to give money for global health. Looking back, I can say that was a dead end," Gates said. "I was a fool for spending time with him. I was one of many who regret ever knowing him."
Epstein reportedly committed suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while under investigation for federal charges of sex trafficking.
The appearance of Gates in Epstein’s documents does not indicate wrongdoing, and none of the high-profile individuals mentioned in the files have been charged.
All of them deny any involvement in Epstein's sexual abuse of girls and young women.
