During Melinda Gates‘ interview with CBS This Morning on March 3, she hinted that her, Bill Gates‘, friendship with Jeffrey Epstein was one of the many reasons the two divorced in 2021. “It was not one thing [that led to the divorce],” Melinda explained. “It was many things. I did not like that he had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein, no. I made that clear to him.”
Bill began meeting with Jeffrey in 2011, three years after the financier was convicted on sex crimes, according to the New York Times. In July 2019, he was arrested for sex trafficking minors, although the criminal charges were dismissed after Epstein died by suicide in jail the next month. Melinda admitted to meeting Jeffrey herself once, and said she was disgusted by him.
“I wanted to see who this man was,” she explained, without specifying when the meeting happened. “I regretted it from the second I stepped in the door. He was abhorrent, he was evil-personified. I had nightmares about it afterward. My heart breaks for these young women because that’s how I felt and I’m an older woman. I feel terrible for these young women. It’s awful.”
When Gayle King tried to push Melinda on the nature of Bill’s relationship with Jeffrey, she decline to answer. “Any of the questions remaining about what Bill’s relationship was with Jeffrey, those are for Bill to answer. But I made it very clear how I felt about him.”
Melinda and Bill announced their divorce in May 2021 after 27 years of marriage. It was later revealed that Bill had cheated on Melinda 20 years prior. Melinda admitted in the CBS This Morning interview that she “couldn’t trust” what she had with her husband anymore, which is why they broke up. However, she would not clarify whether or not Bill had any other affairs, as has been widely reported. “I think that’s something that Bill needs to answer,” she said. Currently, Melinda and Bill are “friendly” and continue to have a working relationship.