Bill Gates faced a grilling this week over his previous relationship with the late Jeffrey Epstein, as well as the highly-publicized objections to the relationship from his ex-wife, Melinda Gates.
The tech mogul was appearing on ABC Australia with Sarah Ferguson — who brought up Epstein in the middle of the discussion. Epstein was a sex offender who was facing charges of sex trafficking in 2019 when he died in his New York jail cell, reportedly from suicide.
“Do you regret the relationship you maintained with him despite Melinda’s advise and wishes?” Ferguson asked Gates, who is visiting Australia to discuss climate change and artificial intelligence.
“I said that I’m — this is going way back in time, but yeah I will say for the over 100th time, yeah shouldn’t have had dinners with him,” the billionaire said.
A New York Times report in 2019 suggested Gates may have slept at Epstein’s New York home at least once. In an interview last year with Gayle King, Melinda Gates said she made it clear to her ex-husband that she was against his “meetings” with Epstein. She called Epstein “evil personified” and said she only met the man once.
“Epstein had a way of sexually compromising people. Is that what Melinda was warning you about?” Ferguson asked.
“No. No. I had dinner with him and that’s all,” Gates said, awkwardly chuckling.
Asked if he regrets any relationship between Epstein and his charitable foundation, Gates rushed to offer a hard denial there.
“There never was any relationship of any kind,” he said.
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