Spending time with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was a “huge mistake,” Bill Gates admitted in a recent interview.
Appearing on CNN for a conversation with Anderson Cooper on Wednesday, the Microsoft co-founder was asked about anything that may have been “misreported” amid the recent finalization of his divorce from Melinda French.
Melinda, he said, “is a great person” with whom he aims to continue working as part of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. From there, Cooper—who first noted he believes it’s “no one’s business” what happens in someone else’s marriage—asked about recent reports focused on concerns Melinda allegedly had regarding his relationship with Epstein.
“I had several dinners with [Epstein] hoping that what he said about getting billions of philanthropy for global health through contacts that he had might emerge,” Gates, who is said to have first met Epstein in 2011, said. “And when it looked like that wasn’t a real thing, that relationship ended. But it was a huge mistake to spend time with him, to give him the credibility of being there. You know, there were lots of others in that same situation, but I made a mistake.”
In 2008, three years prior to first meeting Gates, Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting sex from girls as young as 14. In July 2019, Epstein was arrested again, this time on federal sex trafficking charges. A month later, he was found dead in his cell.
Elsewhere in the Cooper interview, viewable above, Gates said he’s now in a “time of reflection” following the divorce and ensuing reports.
“I need to go forward,” he said. “My work is very important to me. Within the family, we’ll heal as best we can.”
Earlier this week, news broke via TMZ that a judge had signed off on Bill and Melinda’s divorce, bringing their nearly three-decade marriage to an end.
