Question
What did Melinda Gates think of Epstein?
Answer
Melinda French Gates reportedly had an extremely negative reaction to Jeffrey Epstein after meeting him once at a dinner in New York. Reports from the New York Times and other outlets cite people familiar with the matter as saying Gates told her husband she found Epstein “abhorrent” and that the meeting deeply unsettled her.
Despite this, Bill Gates continued to meet with Epstein on multiple occasions between 2011 and 2014, a period well after Epstein’s 2008 sex crimes conviction. According to reporting based on sources close to Melinda Gates, her husband’s continued contact with Epstein — and his failure to disclose the full extent of those meetings — became a source of significant friction in their marriage.
Multiple sources told journalists that Melinda Gates’s concerns about the Epstein relationship were among the issues she raised with divorce lawyers in the years before their 2021 separation announcement. While the couple cited irreconcilable differences publicly, reporting suggested that the Epstein connection was a meaningful component of the breakdown.
Bill Gates acknowledged the meetings were a mistake. He has said the hoped-for philanthropic benefits never materialized.
Melinda French Gates has since spoken more broadly about power dynamics and the treatment of women in tech and finance circles in ways that observers have read as including implicit references to this period.
Sources
- New York Times reporting on Gates-Epstein meetings, October 2019 and May 2021
- Wall Street Journal reporting on Gates marriage, 2021
- Public statements by Bill Gates, 2019 and 2021