Bill Gates apologises over Jeffrey Epstein ties to Foundation staff, says report

admin — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 09:44:00 +0000

American tech entrepreneur Bill Gates has apologised to the staff at the Gates Foundation over his ties with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein but maintained that he did “nothing illicit,” according to a media report.

The Microsoft co-founder also admitted that he had two affairs with Russian women and that he made mistakes that had cast a cloud over the philanthropic group while insisting he didn’t participate in Epstein’s crimes,The Wall Street Journal said in an exclusive report on Tuesday (February 25, 2026).

Mr. Gates was among the scores of celebrities, politicians, leaders, and tech entrepreneurs shown having connections with the sex offender, as was evident in the tens of thousands of documents, including emails, interview transcripts, photos, call logs, etc., with some names redacted, released online – collectively termed Epstein files – last month by the U.S. Justice Department.

In a town hall on Tuesday (February 25, 2026), Mr. Gates acknowledged that he had two affairs with Russian women that Epstein later discovered, but that they didn’t involve Epstein’s victims. “I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit,” Mr. Gates said, according to a recording reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Mr. Gates said images in the recently released Epstein files showing him with women whose faces are redacted were pictures that Epstein asked him to take with Epstein’s assistants after their meetings. “To be clear, I never spent any time with victims, the women around him,” Mr. Gates said.

“It was a huge mistake to spend time with Epstein,” and bring Gates Foundation executives into meetings with the sex offender, Mr. Gates said.

“I apologise to other people who are drawn into this because of the mistake that I made,” The Wall Street Journal quoted Mr. Gates as saying. The philanthropist said he had met Epstein in 2011, three years after the sex offender had pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting a minor for prostitution.

Mr. Gates said he didn’t “properly check” Epstein’s background, even when he was aware of some “18-month thing” that had limited Epstein’s travel, and added that he continued meeting with Epstein even after his then-wife, Melinda French Gates, expressed concerns in 2013.

Speaking of his ex-wife, he added: “To give her credit, she was always kind of sceptical about the Epstein thing.” The Wall Street Journal further said that Mr. Gates told staff on Tuesday (February 25, 2025) that he continued meeting with Epstein through 2014, flew on a private jet with Epstein, and spent time with him in Germany, France, New York, and Washington. “I never stayed overnight,” he said, or visited Epstein’s island.

Mr. Gates admitted that his ties to Epstein and newly disclosed emails from the Justice Department files had cast a cloud over the Mr. Gates Foundation and its reputation, the newspaper said.

“It definitely is the opposite of the values of the Foundation and the goals of the Foundation,” he said. “And our work is very reputation-sensitive. I mean, people can choose to work with us or not work with us.” A Gates Foundation spokesperson said Mr. Gates holds town halls twice a year, and he “spoke candidly, addressing several questions in detail, and took responsibility for his actions.”

The Microsoft co-founder said Epstein “talked about the kind of intimate relationship he had with a lot of billionaires, particularly Wall Street billionaires,” and that he could help raise money for causes like global health.

Mr. Gates said that because Epstein had other prestigious people at these meetings, “it made it easier for me to feel like this was a normalised situation.” He said he realised that his association with Epstein also helped the sex offender to burnish his reputation.

In the town hall, Mr. Gates also said: “I did have affairs, one with a Russian bridge player who met me at bridge events, and one with a Russian nuclear physicist whom I met through business activities.” Mr. Gates said that 2014 was the last year he met with Epstein.

Epstein, as per the U.S. media reports, killed himself in a New York jail cell in August 2019, a month after he was indicted on federal sex trafficking charges.

Published – February 25, 2026 03:14 pm IST

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Bill Gates says he regrets ‘every minute’ with Epstein

admin — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 03:12:00 +0000

A file image of Bill Gates.
| Photo Credit: AP

Bill Gates has voiced regret over “every minute” he spent with Jeffrey Epstein, even as the Microsoft co-founder’s former wife Melinda said he still had questions to answer over his relationship with the convicted sexual offender.

The latest tranche of documents released by the U.S. Justice Department last week contained emails between many prominent figures and Epstein, often revealing warm friendships, illicit financial dealings and private photos.

In a draft email among the documents, Epstein alleged Mr. Gates engaged in extramarital affairs, writing that his relationship with Mr. Gates ranged from “helping Bill to get drugs, in order to deal with consequences of sex with russian girls, to facilitating his illicit trysts, with married women.”

“Every minute I spent with him, I regret, and I apologise,” Mr. Gates, a billionaire philanthropist, told 9News Australia in an interview broadcast Wednesday (February 4, 2026).

“That email was never sent. The email is false,” he said. “I don’t know what his thinking was there. Was he trying to attack me in some way?”

A Gates spokesperson issued a similar denial after the fresh cache of millions of files related to the investigation into Epstein, who died in prison in 2019, were released.

“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,” the spokesperson said.

Melinda French Gates told U.S. National Public Radio in an interview that the document dump brought back “memories of some very, very painful times in my marriage.”

“For me, it’s personally hard whenever those details come up,” she said.

“Whatever questions remain there of what — I 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.”

The couple divorced in 2021.

Mr. Bill Gates told 9News that he met Epstein in 2011 and had several dinners with him over three years, but never visited his Caribbean island and didn’t have relations with women.

“The focus was always, he knew a lot of very rich people, and he was saying he could get them to give money to global health. In retrospect, that was a dead end,” he said.

Someone’s name in the Epstein files does not imply any wrongdoing, but the documents revealed connections between Epstein and public figures who have often downplayed — or even denied — such ties.

Published – February 05, 2026 08:42 am IST

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Bill Gates in Epstein files – Artifex.News

Bill Gates apologises over Jeffrey Epstein ties to Foundation staff, says report

Bill Gates says he regrets ‘every minute’ with Epstein