Bill Gates was thrust into headlines again when a bombshell Wall Street Journal report revealed his apparent affair with a Russian bridge player, as well as an apparent threat from sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to reveal the affair if Gates didn’t comply with his demands.
The alleged affair involved Mila Antonova, who was in her 20s at the time of the affair—Gates was in his mid–50s—while Gates was married to Melinda French Gates.
The connection between Gates and Epstein reportedly began with Antonova in late 2013. That’s when Epstein met Antonova and paid for her to attend software coding school, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The newspaper claimed Epstein emailed Gates in 2017 asking to be reimbursed for the cost of Antonova’s course. This came after Epstein had allegedly struggled to convince Gates to participate in a multibillion–dollar charity fund that he was attempting to establish with JPMorgan Chase.
Epstein appeared to use the information about Gates’ affair with Antonova as leverage to get the Microsoft co–founder to comply with his demands, the newspaper reported.
However, a spokesperson for Gates said that he had no intention of complying with Epstein’s demands, and noted that he had only met with Epstein for philanthropic purposes.
Antonova, meanwhile, said she had no knowledge of Jeffrey Epstein and what he did before they met, adding that she had only seen him as “a successful businessman and wanted to help.”
The two met at Epstein’s townhouse in November 2013 so that Epstein could hear what Antonova had to say about a venture to promote the game of bridge. Epstein didn’t fund the venture, but he did pay for Antonova to attend schooling.
The Wall Street Journal also reported that Gates had more than a half–dozen meetings scheduled with Epstein, beginning in 2011. And in March 2013, Gates flew on Epstein’s Gulfstream plane from New Jersey to Palm Beach, Florida.
The Daily Beast, however, previously reported that Melinda Gates was uncomfortable with the encounter with Epstein, and was angry over the relationship between the two men.
In January 2023, when Gates was asked about his connection with Epstein, he said “I said that I‘m— this is going way back in time, but yeah I will say for the over 100th time, yeah I shouldn‘t have had dinners with him.”
Epstein pleaded guilty to felony soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution in 2008. He died from an alleged suicide on August 10, 2019, at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City while awaiting his sex trafficking trial.
The investigation into Epstein’s connections with powerful people is ongoing, with the Wall Street Journal recently reporting that Epstein had met with a CIA director, a White House counsel, a Rothschild, and more.
It is unclear how far the investigation will go, or what revelations will be revealed in the months to come. For now, the connections between Bill Gates and Jeffrey Epstein are under a microscope, with a separate spotlight shining on Gates’ marital history with Melinda French Gates.
