Bill Gates: "I regret it"

“The focus was always on the fact that he knew many very wealthy people and claimed he could persuade them to donate money for global health,” Gates said in an interview with Nine News on Wednesday.

Gates gave his “only television interview in Australia” to Nine during his stay for the Australian Open.

The billionaire continued: “You know, in hindsight, it was a dead end and I was foolish to spend time with him. I was one of many people who regret ever knowing him. Allegedly, Jeffrey wrote an email to himself. That email was never sent. That email is, you know, inaccurate. I don’t know what was going through his head at the time. Every minute I spent with him—I regret it, and I apologize for having done so,” Gates said.

He added that he had been present “only at dinners,” that he never went to the island, and that he allegedly never met any women.

“And, you know, the more information comes out, the clearer it will be that, although that time was a mistake, it had nothing to do with that kind of behavior,” he emphasized.

The latest set of documents contains allegations against several well-known figures, including Gates, who met with Epstein on multiple occasions to discuss expanding his philanthropic activities.

Contracted a sexually transmitted disease and secretly treated his wife

An email Epstein sent to himself in 2013 shows his frustration over Gates’s decision to end their relationship, and it allegedly claims that Gates contracted a sexually transmitted disease and sought Epstein’s advice on how to secretly give antibiotics to his then-wife Melinda.

MediaPunch / BACKGRID / Backgrid USA / Profimedia

“To make matters worse, you then ask me to delete emails related to your sexually transmitted disease, your request that I obtain antibiotics you would secretly give to Melinda, as well as a description of your penis,” the email says, containing numerous spelling errors.

Melinda, who divorced Bill Gates in 2021, said earlier on Tuesday that those mentioned in the documents, including her former husband, have things to explain.

During Tuesday’s episode of NPR’s Wild Card podcast, Melinda said she feels deep compassion for Epstein’s victims and is glad to be “far away from all that filth.”

“I think that, as a society, we’re going through a kind of reckoning with the truth, aren’t we? No girl, no young woman should ever have been put in the situation they found themselves in because of Epstein and everything that was going on with the various people around him,” she said, shaking her head.

She added: “It’s more than heartbreaking. I remember those years when those girls were that age, and I also remember when my daughters were that age. For me, it’s personally very difficult every time these details emerge, because they remind me of some very, very painful moments in my marriage.”