Bill Gates recently opened up about his friendship with the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in a new interview.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, the former Microsoft CEO made a significant confession regarding the time he spent with Epstein.
The 69-year-old Gates told WSJ, “In retrospect, I was foolish to spend any time with him. And he, sort of, got time with various people by spending time with other people. So yes, I think I was quite stupid. I thought it would help me with global health philanthropy. In fact, it failed to do that; it was just a huge mistake.”
He also discussed how meeting Epstein led to controversies that made him cautious about building new relationships.
Furthermore, WSJ reported in 2023 that Epstein had threatened to expose Gates’ alleged relationship with a Russian bridge player in 2017 to his now-ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, after failing to get him to invest in a charity that never came to fruition.
A spokesperson for Bill Gates told PEOPLE, “Mr. Gates met with Epstein solely for philanthropic purposes. Having failed repeatedly to draw Mr. Gates beyond these matters, Epstein tried unsuccessfully to leverage a past relationship to threaten Mr. Gates.”
The spokesperson also claimed that the two never had “any financial dealings.”
Notably, Epstein died by suicide at the age of 66 in August 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of federal conspiracy and sex trafficking.
