End ‘friendship’ with Epstein, Melinda Gates raged at Bill
MELINDA Gates was taken by husband Bill to meet Jeffrey Epstein – but was so furious she ordered him to stop associating with the paedophile, it has been claimed.
Mrs Gates went to Epstein’s Manhattan mansion in September 2013 in what proved to be a ‘turning point’ in the relationship between the Microsoft founder and the late financier.
Afterwards she told friends how ‘uncomfortable’ she was with Epstein, who in 2008 had been jailed for 18 months for having sex with under-age girls.
The embarrassing claims by US website The Daily Beast point to further tensions between Mr and Mrs Gates, who this week announced that they were divorcing after 27 years of marriage.
Mr Gates, 65, met Epstein at least three times between 2011 and 2013. They reportedly talked about setting up a global health fund with money from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Epstein’s network of wealthy friends.
A meeting in 2013, when Mr Gates brought along his wife, reportedly led to him ending his ‘friendship’ with Epstein months later. Mrs Gates, 56, told friends ‘how uncomfortable she was in the company of the sex offender and how she wanted nothing to do with him’.
In the US media in 2019 Mr Gates denied having any friendship or business relationship with Epstein, saying they met only to discuss philanthropy but that he now regrets this as being at odds with his values. Epstein killed himself in a New York prison in August 2019 aged 66 while awaiting trial for sexual abuse of under-age girls.