Bill Gates Says He Should Have Heeded Melinda’s ‘Sound’ Advice on Jeffrey Epstein Sooner

L: Microsoft principle founder Bill Gates participates in a discussion during a luncheon of the Economic Club of Washington on June 24, 2019. (Alex Wong/Getty Images) R: Jeffrey Epstein appears in a photograph taken for the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services' sex offender registry in a 2017 file photograph. New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services/Handout via Reuters

Billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has said he should have heeded the advice of his ex-wife Melinda Gates, once again saying that it was a “huge mistake” to meet several times with Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier accused of sex trafficking and child abuse.

In an interview with NBC, Gates said he “certainly made a huge mistake” to meet with Epstein, not just the first time, but “a number of times.”

Epstein, who was found dead in a New York jail cell in 2019, at the age of 66, was already a convicted sex offender who had been sentenced with soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008, and had served 13 months in custody in Florida, before he and Gates first met.

At the time of his death, which was ruled a suicide by hanging, Epstein was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges for abusing women and girls in Manhattan and Florida from 2002 to 2005. He had pleaded not guilty.

In explaining his decision to pursue a relationship with Epstein, Gates said: “I had a goal of raising money for global health. I didn’t realize that a meeting with him almost downplayed the incredibly awful things he did.”

“I learned more about that over time,” he added.

Gates, who is one of the wealthiest people in the world, previously said that he had several dinners with Epstein in a bid to garner billions of dollars in philanthropy via his network, but he said their relationship ended when “it looked like that wasn’t a real thing.”

He has repeatedly stated that it was a mistake to spend time with the late financier.

Melinda Gates has cited her ex-husband’s relationship and meetings with Epstein, among other things, as playing a part in her decision to divorce Gates after 27 years of marriage. The pair announced their billion-dollar divorce in May 2021.

In an interview with CBS in March, Melinda Gates described how she felt Epstein was “evil personified” from the moment she met him. She said she made her dislike of the convicted sex offender clear to her ex-husband.

“I also met Jeffrey Epstein exactly one time. Because I wanted to see who this man was. And I regretted it from the second I stepped in the door. He was abhorrent. He was evil personified,” she said, adding that she had nightmares about it afterward.

Gates said Epstein “was a bad person” and in addition to meeting with him, it was a mistake not to heed Melinda’s advice.

“I'd add that to the list of big mistakes, including, you know, where Melinda’s advice was sound and I, I should have followed it sooner than I did,” Gates said.

He added, “I had a reason that I thought those meetings would lead to something good, but I shouldn’t have done them.”