In addition to apologizing to his charity’s employees for his previous connections to sex offender and notorious financier Jeffrey Epstein, Bill Gates this week acknowledged having two romances with Russian women while married to Melinda French Gates. However, he insisted he was not involved in anything “illicit.”
According to a video examined by The Wall Street Journal, the 70-year-old Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist stated during a town hall for his Gates Foundation on Tuesday, February 24:
“I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit,”
In a statement, a Gates representative informs PEOPLE that:
“this was a scheduled townhall with employees, which Bill does twice a year. In the conversation, Bill answered questions submitted by foundation staff on a range of issues, including the release of the Epstein files, the foundation’s work in AI, and the future of global health.”
“In the townhall, Bill spoke candidly, addressing several questions in detail, and took responsibility for his actions,”
Gates’ relationship with Epstein, who passed away in federal custody in 2019 after being charged with human trafficking, has come under renewed scrutiny after the U.S. Justice Department released a trove of documents that included draft emails Epstein wrote himself years ago accusing Gates of catching an STD from “Russian girls” and then requesting Epstein’s assistance to conceal it from his ex-wife.
