Melinda French Gates has spoken out about being mentioned in the latest batch of Epstein files and addressed claims about her ex-husband, Bill Gates.
The 61-year-old, who shares three children with the billionaire, appeared on NPR’s Wild Card podcast this week and was quizzed by host Rachel Martin about the Jeffrey Epstein case after she was mentioned in documents released Friday by the Department of Justice.
Melinda Gates said society was “having a reckoning” over the case of the sex offender and that it “brings back memories of some very, very painful times” in her marriage to the Microsoft founder.
“But I have moved on from that. I purposely pushed it away and I moved on,” she said. “I'm in a really unexpected, beautiful place in my life, so 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,” she continued. “They need to answer to those things, not me.”
The couple announced their divorce in May 2021 after 27 years of marriage.
Martin asked the philanthropist specifically about the contents of one draft email Epstein allegedly wrote on July 18, 2013, regarding her ex-husband in which she is mentioned by name.
“The emails in the files suggest that Bill Gates had additional affairs, and that he tried to get medication to treat a sexually transmitted infection, and that he was going to give you the medicine without you knowing,” Martin summarized, and asked what “dominant emotion” Melinda Gates felt after reading news articles about the email.
“Just unbelievable sadness,” Melinda Gates responded. “I'm able to take my own sadness and look at those young girls and say, ‘My God, how did they…How did that happen to those girls, right?”
“At least for me, I've been able to move on in life, and I hope there's some justice for those now women,” she added.
A spokesperson for Bill Gates vehemently denied the allegations made in the note.
“These claims are absolutely absurd and completely false,” the spokesperson previously told The Independent. “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 same year as the couple announced their divorce, Gates told PBS News that he had dinners with Epstein in the hopes of raising funds for global health. He described the meetings as “a mistake.”
Melinda Gates stepped down from the Gates Foundation in May 2024.
The newly released email was one of more than three million documents released Friday to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was signed into law in November.
Among the newly released files are thousands of emails, court documents and photos, many of which reference high-profile individuals, such as President Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton and Elon Musk. Being named in the files does not in and of itself constitute evidence of wrongdoing.
Brendan Rascius contributed to this report
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