Melinda French Gates says Bill Gates must 'answer to' Epstein file claims

Philanthropist and businesswoman Melinda French Gates said it is not her responsibility to answer questions about her ex-husband Bill Gates' association with the late convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

"Whatever questions remain there of what I don't — can't even begin to know all of it — those questions are for those people and for even my ex-husband. They need to answer to those things, not me," she said in the upcoming Thursday, Feb. 5 episode of NPR's "Wild Card" podcast.

"And I am so happy to be away from all the muck that was there."

The advocate for women and girls said she is saddened to think about what the victims of Epstein went through and said that reading about the details of what victims experienced "brings back memories of some very, very painful times" in her marriage with the Microsoft co-founder.

"It's beyond heartbreaking. I remember being those ages those girls were. I remember my daughters being those ages. So, for me, it's personally hard whenever those details come up," she told host Rachel Martin. "But I have moved on from that. I purposely pushed it away, and I moved on. I'm in a really unexpected, beautiful place in my life."

A spokesperson for Bill Gates has denied allegations that surfaced in the Jan. 30 batch of Epstein files released by the Justice Department, but did not address his ex-wife's remarks.

Bill Gates named in Epstein files

Bill Gates was spotted alongside the disgraced financier in a photo from the Epstein investigation released in December that showed both men in suits without context. On Jan. 30, the Justice Department dropped 3 million more pages of documents that mention many powerful men, including Gates, billionaire tech executive Elon Musk and President Donald Trump.

On July 18, 2013, Epstein sent two emails to himself, including one containing unverified allegations that the former Microsoft CEO got a sexually transmitted infection from having extramarital "sex with Russian girls" requiring antibiotics, according to a file shared by the Justice Department.

The other email was a resignation letter, seemingly written from the perspective of someone named "Boris," condemning Gates for choosing to "disregard our friendship developed of over the last 6 years."

"In my role as his right hand I had been asked on mulitple occassion and in hindsight , wrongly acquiesced into participating in things that have ranged from the morally inappropriate , to the ethically unsound and had been repeatedly asked to do other things that get near and potentially over the line into the illegal," the email reads.

Bill Gates' team calls Epstein files claims 'completely false'

A spokesperson for Bill Gates strongly denied the allegations in a statement shared with USA TODAY.

"These claims are absolutely absurd and completely false. 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," the statement reads.

Melinda and Bill Gates announced their divorce in May 2021 after 27 years of marriage, and Melinda eventually left the Gates Foundation by June 2024, a decision she told Martin she felt she had to make.

"Unbelievable sadness," Melinda said in her upcoming podcast episode set to drop Thursday, Feb 5. "I had to leave my marriage. I wanted to leave my marriage."

She continued: "At least for me, I've been able to move on in life, and I hope there's some justice for those now women. We see them standing up in front of microphones in D.C. What they went through is just unimaginable."