Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates is best known as the co-founder of Microsoft. The Seattle native also founded and chairs several companies, including TerraPower. TIME has named Gates among the most influential people of the 21st century.
A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution, Gates had a net worth of $107.7 billion as of February 2026, according to Forbes, making him the 18th richest person in the world. While Gates’ career and philanthropic work showcase the impact of focus and dedication, his personal life has also drawn significant media scrutiny.
Gates previously acknowledged having an affair with a Microsoft employee early in his marriage to Melinda French Gates. The couple met in New York in 1987 and married in 1994. Their partnership was a solid union built on shared ambition, support, and teamwork. Although they had different interests, Gates concentrated on climate change and global health, while Melinda focused on women’s empowerment and issues affecting girls.
Their relationship was relatively private but appeared solid. Therefore, their separation announcement on May 3, 2021, surprised many.
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Recently, attention has turned to the partial release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein. The DOJ released more than three million pages related to the Epstein case on Jan. 30.
After further public demand for information, 11,000 additional files were added to a massive public document release made in December 2025. These included a series of blurred images of several high-profile figures, along with videos and photographs.
Epstein was a convicted sex offender whom several underage girls accused of sexual abuse. Other notable names in the Epstein files include Prince Andrew, Bill Gates and Bill Clinton.
Bill Gates first met Jeffrey Epstein in 2011 with his foundation adviser, Boris Nikolic. The release included several emails exchanged between Epstein and Nikolic.
According to The Sun, one email read, “Your friend Bill is nuts. His former girl can’t afford air con, can’t afford to travel to bridge. She is OK, but broke. That story would take Trump off the front pages.”
“The richest man in the world is so cheap, his former bridge girl and toy lives on a friend’s sofa. WOWO,” he added. The woman was allegedly Mila Antonova, a 20-year-old who met Gates when he was in his 50s at a tournament in 2010.
In a Feb. 24, 2026, report by The Wall Street Journal, Gates spoke at a Gates Foundation town hall meeting and admitted to two additional affairs with Russian women that Epstein later learned about.
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“I did have affairs, one with a Russian bridge player who met me at bridge events, and one with a Russian nuclear physicist who I met through business activities,” he said.
The files also allegedly claimed that Bill Gates had contracted a sexually transmitted infection, and that one of the women attempted to hide it from Melinda by secretly giving her antibiotics.
The tech mogul also claimed that the pictures in the files were images Jeffrey Epstein asked him to take with his assistants following meetings.
The billionaire said at the town hall that Melinda had warned him about his association with Epstein. She stated that she felt uneasy about Epstein, who died in 2019.
Epstein tried everything to get Elon to his island, even using Reid Hoffman and Bill Gates to get to him
Elon refused multiple times and eventually blocked his emails at the server level permanently
So, in retaliation, Epstein and Gates launched a massive campaign to short… pic.twitter.com/xeDfaoPBha
— X Freeze (@XFreeze) February 21, 2026
“I did not like that he’d had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein, no,” she said.
In a 2022 interview on CBS Mornings with Gayle King, she was asked if Gates’s relationship with Epstein contributed to their high-profile divorce.
Melinda Gates also revealed that she met Epstein once herself, explaining, “I wanted to see who this man was … And I regretted it from the second I stepped in the door.”
Bill’s ex-wife said she felt that Epstein was an “abhorrent and evil personified.”
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“My heart breaks for Epstein’s victims because that’s how I felt, and here, I’m an older woman. My God, I feel terrible for those young women. It was awful.”
As the speculation refuses to simmer down, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said that it had released all materials required under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, passed in November 2025.
Rep. Thomas Massie co-sponsored the act with Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna in July 2025, after which the bill was declared a law.
