Bill Gates spent last Wednesday in a closed room on Capitol Hill explaining why he kept meeting a convicted sex offender.
His ex-wife sat down with The Guardian – and nearly walked out before she could finish.
What Melinda French Gates said about her one meeting with Jeffrey Epstein stopped the interview cold.
Melinda French Gates Warned Bill About Epstein Before the Divorce
Melinda French Gates met Jeffrey Epstein exactly once – in 2013, at his Manhattan townhouse, at a meeting her then-husband attended.
She never wanted a second meeting.
"I did not like that he had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein," she told CBS Mornings in 2022. "I made that clear to him."
Bill Gates kept meeting with him anyway – through 2014, on Epstein's private jet, in New York, Germany, France, and Washington.
Gates testified before the House Oversight Committee last Wednesday – nearly six hours of it – insisting Epstein had promised to raise billions for global health and that the whole relationship was strictly professional. He never witnessed criminal conduct, he said. Never.
At the Gates Foundation town hall in February, he did manage to credit his ex-wife.
"To give her credit, she was always kind of skeptical about the Epstein thing," Gates said.
That's one way to put it.
Bill Gates Told the House Oversight Committee He Didn't Know
Gates arrived at the Capitol on June 10 for a closed-door transcribed interview – called by Republican Rep. James Comer and the House Oversight Committee investigating the government's handling of the Epstein case.
His opening statement was carefully constructed.
"I want to state very clearly: I never witnessed nor had any indication that Epstein was engaged in ongoing criminal conduct. I never went to his island, his ranch, or his Florida home. I have never victimized anyone," he said.
He acknowledged knowing Epstein had a prior conviction when they first met in January 2011 – three years after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor – but said he "did not fully understand the extent of the crimes he committed."
What he did know, eventually, was that Epstein had obtained knowledge of his extramarital affairs and was using it as leverage to keep Gates engaged.
Those affairs Gates confirmed himself at the February town hall: one with a Russian bridge player, one with a Russian nuclear physicist.
DOJ-released Epstein files described his activities on Gates' behalf as ranging from obtaining drugs to facilitating affairs with married women.
Gates denied the most inflammatory specifics.
His ex-wife, four days after his testimony, used a different word to describe the man at the center of it all.
Melinda French Gates Called Epstein Evil and Nearly Ended the Interview
Melinda French Gates sat down with The Guardian this weekend at her Seattle home.
When the interviewer asked what she found so repulsive about Epstein – the man she met once, in 2013, at his Manhattan townhouse – she couldn't finish the answer without stopping.
Her hand went to her chest.
She looked out the window.
"My heart is racing," she said.
She nearly ended the interview entirely.
"Have you ever in your life been around somebody that you just know is evil?"
Bill Gates told Congress it took him years, a criminal conviction, a sex trafficking investigation, a DOJ document dump, and a congressional subpoena to understand what Epstein really was.
His ex-wife needed one afternoon in a Manhattan townhouse.
She needed one meeting. He needed Congress.
Sources:
- New York Post, "Melinda French Gates breaks down recalling 'evil' Epstein encounter that gave her nightmares," June 13, 2026.
- CBS News, "Bill Gates tells Congress that meeting Epstein was 'a grave error in judgment,'" June 10, 2026.
- CNBC, "Bill Gates interviewed about Jeffrey Epstein by House Oversight," June 10, 2026.
- ABC News, "Bill Gates tells Oversight panel that meeting with Epstein was a 'grave error in judgment,'" June 10, 2026.
- AOL/Mirror, "Bill Gates admits affairs with two Russian women and apologizes for Epstein ties," February 2026.