Bill Gates apologizes to foundation staff for Epstein ties, admits affairs with two Russian women

Bill Gates stood before his own employees at a Gates Foundation town hall on Tuesday and did something the Microsoft founder rarely does: he admitted he was wrong. Gates called his years-long relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein a "huge mistake" and acknowledged having affairs with two Russian women he met during his time orbiting Epstein's world.

He insisted, repeatedly, that neither woman was an Epstein victim. He insisted he saw nothing criminal. He insisted he never stayed overnight, never visited Epstein's private island.

That's a lot of insisting for a man who spent years ignoring every red flag in front of him.

What Gates told his employees

According to a Wall Street Journal report based on a recording of the town hall, Gates addressed the Epstein relationship with more detail than he ever has publicly. He told staff he began meeting Epstein in 2011, three years after Epstein's 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor. He continued seeing him after his then-wife, Melinda, raised concerns in 2013. He remained in contact through 2014.

Gates identified the two affairs directly:

"I did have affairs, one with a Russian bridge player who met me at bridge events, and one with a Russian nuclear physicist who I met through business activities."

He told employees that neither woman was connected to Epstein's criminal behavior and framed the relationships as separate from the financier's predatory conduct:

"I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit."

He also acknowledged that his continued association with Epstein dragged foundation staff into the mess, something he said he regretted. The Daily Mail reported.

"I apologise to other people who are drawn into this because of the mistake that I made."

A Gates Foundation spokesman confirmed the tenor of the meeting, saying Gates "spoke candidly, addressing several questions in detail, and took responsibility for his actions."

The timeline tells its own story

The facts Gates himself laid out are damning enough without editorializing. Epstein was convicted in 2008. Gates began meeting him in 2011. By 2013, Melinda Gates was raising alarms about the relationship. Gates kept going anyway, traveling to meet Epstein in Germany, France, New York, and Washington. He flew on Epstein's private jet. He involved foundation executives in meetings with the man.

It took until 2014 for Gates to finally cut contact, by his own account. His marriage lasted another seven years before Melinda filed for divorce in May 2021, ending 27 years together. She later described Epstein as "evil personified."

Gates gave his ex-wife a small concession during the town hall:

"To give her credit, she was always kind of skeptical about the Epstein thing."

"Kind of skeptical" is a generous way to describe a wife watching her husband repeatedly visit a convicted sex offender.

The Epstein web

The Journal's reporting paints a picture that goes beyond casual acquaintance. The Russian bridge player, identified as Mila Antonova, met Gates at a bridge tournament in 2009. She later met Epstein, who sought financial backing for a bridge academy and eventually paid for Antonova to attend a software coding course.

Epstein, as he did with so many powerful men, appears to have used these connections as leverage. According to the Journal, Epstein later threatened Gates over his relationship with Antonova. A 2013 email to a senior Gates adviser referenced two women Epstein claimed Gates had been involved with during his marriage, warning they risked "becoming overnight sensations."

A person named Boris Nikolic, who had links to both Gates and Epstein, was reportedly aware of the relationships and later informed Epstein. The relationship with the unnamed Russian nuclear physicist allegedly began in 2010, though it remains unclear whether that relationship overlapped with her employment at any Gates-connected entity.

Gates also described a pattern familiar to anyone who has followed the Epstein saga: after meetings, Epstein would ask Gates to pose for photos with Epstein's assistants. This is the kind of detail that sounds innocuous in isolation and deeply calculated in context.

The Epstein excuse industry

Gates joins a long line of wealthy and powerful men who maintained relationships with Epstein, claimed ignorance of his crimes, and only expressed regret once the association became publicly untenable. The playbook never changes. They went for the philanthropy. They went for the connections. They went for the intellectual stimulation. They had no idea. They saw nothing. They are deeply sorry.

Gates told staff the full scope of Epstein's behavior only became clear in retrospect:

"Knowing what I know now makes it, you know, a hundred times worse in terms of not only his crimes in the past, but now it's clear there was ongoing bad behavior."

What he "knows now" was knowable then. Epstein's 2008 conviction was public record. The man had served a prison sentence and was subject to 18 months of travel restrictions. None of this was hidden. Gates chose to associate with him anyway, and he chose to keep associating with him after his own wife told him to stop.

The Gates Foundation said earlier this month that it did not make any financial payments to Epstein or employ him. That may be technically true. But Epstein's currency was never just money. It was access, leverage, and the implicit threat that came with knowing too much about powerful people's private lives.

Consequences, or the lack of them

Gates pulled out of India's AI Impact Summit last week, hours before a scheduled keynote. No reason was publicly given. The timing suggests the Epstein revelations are finally exacting a professional cost, however minor, on a man whose fortune and influence have largely insulated him from accountability.

The broader question, the one Gates's careful town hall performance didn't answer, is why any of this took so long. Previously released U.S. Department of Justice documents show Gates met Epstein repeatedly after the financier had already served a prison sentence. Foundation executives were brought into meetings. His wife objected. He continued.

Gates framed Tuesday's town hall as accountability. But accountability delivered on your own terms, to your own employees, in your own building, is not accountability. It's reputation management.

Melinda saw it clearly. She called Epstein evil personified. Her husband spent three more years keeping the man's phone number active.