Melinda French Gates has spoken out for the first time since new claims emerged about her ex-husband, Bill Gates, after the release of files from a US government investigation into the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In an interview with NPR's Wild Card podcast on Tuesday, Ms French Gates said she felt "unbelievable sadness" when she learned of the allegations contained in the roughly 3 million pages released by the US Justice Department last week.
"For me, it's personally hard whenever those details come up because it brings back memories of some very, very painful times in my marriage," she said.
"Whatever questions remain there — I 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."
Microsoft's billionaire founder, Bill Gates, is among many influential people mentioned by name in Epstein's personal communications.
The ABC is in the process of reviewing the files. Being named or pictured in the files does not imply wrongdoing or criminal activity.
The latest documents indicate Mr Gates met with Epstein on multiple occasions after Epstein's prison sentence to discuss expanding his philanthropic efforts.
In one email sent to himself in 2013, Epstein appears to suggest that Mr Gates contracted a sexually transmitted disease and sought to secretly give his then-wife, Melinda, antibiotics.
Epstein said in the email he was "dismayed" that Mr Gates was ending their friendship over the "accident".
"TO add insult to injury you them implore me to please delete the emails regarding your std, your request that I provide you antibiotics that you can surreptitiously give to Melinda and the description of your penis," the email with typos reads.
In another email sent the same year, Epstein accused Mr Gates of involving him in what he called "morally inappropriate" and "ethically unsound" activities.
"From helping Bill to get drugs, in order to deal with consequences of sex with russian girls, to facilitating his illicit trysts, with married women, to being asked to provide adderall fro bridge tournamnts [sic]," the email reads.
As a result, Epstein wrote he had decided to resign from a role he had with the Gates Foundation and BG3, a think tank founded by Bill Gates, because he got "caught up in a severe marital dispute between Melinda and Bill".
A spokesperson for Mr Gates rejected the claims as "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," they said.
'I had to leave my marriage'
Melinda and Bill Gates were married for 27 years before they divorced in 2021.
Ms French Gates later said her ex-husband had an affair with a Microsoft staffer in 2019 — a claim Mr Gates confirmed in a statement to The New York Times in 2021.
Although the pair initially pledged to continue their philanthropic work together, Ms French Gates resigned from the Gates Foundation in 2024.
In Tuesday's interview with NPR, she said she felt she had no other choice.
"I had to leave my marriage, I felt I had to eventually leave the foundation, so it's just sad," she said.
"At least I've been able to move on in life and now I hope there's some justice for those women."
Epstein's former girlfriend and accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, remains the only person to be convicted in connection with Epstein's sex trafficking crimes.
Ms French Gates said the allegations of child sexual abuse were "beyond heartbreaking".
"I think we're having a reckoning as a society … no girl should ever be put in the situation.
"I remember being those ages, I remember my daughters being those ages."
Ms French Gates said she had deliberately worked to move on from "the muck".
"I'm in a really unexpected, beautiful place in my life," she said.
"I am so happy to be away from all the muck that was there."
The ABC has contacted the Gates Foundation for comment.
