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By Soo Kim
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An interview where Melinda French Gates spoke about Jeffrey Epstein and his meetings with her ex-husband, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, has resurfaced on social media following the latest release by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) of files tied to the Epstein investigation.
A clip from Melinda French Gates' interview with Gayle King from CBS Mornings back in 2022 discussing her divorce and Bill Gates' interactions with Epstein has been shared by @danisha_e and @tim.watson.threads on Threads. Both posts have gone viral, amassing 869,000 views and 378,000 views respectively, since they were shared in the past couple of days.
In the interview, Melinda French Gates said: “I did not like that he [Bill Gates] had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein…I made that clear to him.” She later went on to describe the only time she’d met Epstein, saying: “He was abhorrent. He was evil personified. I had nightmares about it afterwards.”
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Newsweek has contacted Melinda French Gates via Pivotal, her philanthropic organization, and Bill Gates via the Gates Foundation for comment.
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Why It Matters
The DOJ has shared over 3 million pages, 180,000 images, and 2,000 videos tied to the Epstein investigation, marking the largest government release since a transparency law mandated disclosure last year.
The newly released Epstein files included claims made by the deceased abuser that Bill Gates had contracted a sexually transmitted disease from “Russian girls,” which the latter has firmly denied. A spokesperson for the Microsoft co-founder dismissed the latest allegations emerging from the files, including the “absolutely absurd and completely false” claims made by Epstein.
What To Know
Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, who co-founded the Gates Foundation, got divorced in 2021 after 27 years of marriage. In 2021, it was confirmed that Bill had an affair with a staff member that took place nearly 20 years earlier. Melinda left the Gates Foundation in 2024 and now heads Pivotal, an organization she formed in 2015, which advocates for women’s power and influence in the U.S. and worldwide.
In the 2022 interview for CBS Mornings, King asked Melinda French Gates: “You know it was also widely reported that Bill had a friendship or business or some kind of contact with Jeffrey Epstein…that that was very upsetting to you did that play a role in the in the divorce at all in this process?”
She replied: “It's not one thing; it was many things. But I did not like that he [Bill Gates] had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein…” When Gayle asked, “And you made that clear to him [Bill Gates]?” she replied: “I made that clear to him.”
She also recalled meeting with Epstein. She said: “I also met Jeffrey Epstein exactly one time because I wanted to see who this man was, and I regretted it from the second I stepped in the door. He was abhorrent. He was evil personified. I had nightmares about it afterwards.”
She added: “So, you know my heart breaks for these young women because that's how I felt, and here I'm an older woman, my God, I feel terrible for those young women. It's awful.”
Asked whether Bill Gates continued to spend time with Epstein even after she shared her feelings about Epstein, Melinda French Gates told King: “Any of the questions remaining about what Bill's relationship there was, those are for Bill to answer...but I made it very clear how I felt about him.”
What People Are Saying
User @danisha_e, who shared the clip of the 2022 interview, said: “With the new release of these Epstein files I can’t stop thinking about this interview.”
User @tim.watson.threads, who also posted the clip, said: “What a strong & courageous woman. She knew this day would come & she said this four years ago. Melinda French Gates.”
A spokesperson for Gates said: “The only thing these documents demonstrate is Epstein’s frustration that he did not have an ongoing relationship with Gates and the lengths he would go to entrap and defame.”
What Happens Next
Democrats, including Representative Ro Khanna of California, have questioned why only around 3.5 million pages of the Epstein files have been released after redactions, which could lead to possible congressional scrutiny over any withheld materials.
Khanna said in a statement Friday: “The DOJ said it identified over 6 million potentially responsive pages but is releasing only about 3.5 million after review and redactions. This raises questions as to why the rest are being withheld.”
In an interview with ABC News' This Week anchor George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Department of Justice's (DOJ) review of records related to Jeffrey Epstein has concluded.
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