Melinda French Gates has said that her ex-husband, Bill Gates, must answer questions arising from newly released documents connected to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as fresh details from the files have reignited public scrutiny.

 

 

In emails included in the documents, Epstein claimed that Gates had asked him to help arrange meetings with married women and to obtain medication to treat a sexually transmitted infection. Epstein also alleged that Gates wanted to give that medication to French Gates without her knowledge. One email attributed to Epstein described his anger over requests to delete messages related to the alleged infection and other details.

 

 

A spokesperson for Bill Gates rejected the claims, “These claims are absolutely absurd and completely false. 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.”

 

 

Speaking in an interview on NPR’s Wild Card podcast, Melinda French Gates said the disclosures were difficult for her to revisit. “For me, it’s personally hard whenever those details come up, right? Because it brings back memories of some very, very painful times in my marriage,” she said.

 

 

The comments follow the release of around three million pages of Epstein’s personal communications by the US Justice Department. Bill Gates is among several prominent figures referenced in the material.

 

 

Melinda said that she was not in a position to respond to the allegations mentioned in the files. “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 emphasised. “They need to answer to those things, not me.”

 

 

In the interview, French Gates also said the latest documents filled her with “unbelievable sadness.” She also referred to the impact of Epstein’s actions on his victims. “I think we’re having a reckoning as a society, right? No girl should ever be put in the situation that they were put in by Epstein and whatever was going on with all of the various people around him,” she said.

 

 

French Gates, who finalised her divorce from Gates in 2021, has previously said his association with Epstein was one factor among others that led her to leave the marriage and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Reflecting on her response to the revelations, she said: “I’m able to take my own sadness and look at those young girls and say, ‘My God, how did that happen to those girls?’ At least for me, I’ve been able to move on in life”.