Philanthropist Melinda French Gates says newly released documents tied to Jeffrey Epstein have brought back \u201cvery, very painful\u201d periods from her marriage, after the files referenced her former husband, Bill Gates. Speaking on NPR\u2019s \u201cWild Card\u201d podcast, she added that everyone named\u2014\u201cincluding my former husband\u201d\u2014owes the public clear answers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
French Gates, who divorced Bill Gates in 2021 after 27 years, said she feels \u201crelief\u201d to be out of what she called a damaging chapter, but emphasized that lingering questions are for those directly implicated to address. \u201cIt\u2019s their responsibility to answer, not mine,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The renewed scrutiny follows the United States Department of Justice\u2019s release of a large cache of Epstein-related materials, which include draft emails found in Epstein\u2019s account. Some drafts purport to reference allegations about Gates; it is unclear whether any were ever sent. A spokesperson for Gates rejected the claims as \u201cbaseless and false,\u201d and none of Epstein\u2019s accusers has alleged misconduct by Gates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
U.S. media have previously reported that French Gates was uncomfortable with her husband\u2019s past contacts with Epstein. Bill Gates has said he met Epstein a handful of times to discuss a philanthropic idea that never materialized, and he has acknowledged an unrelated consensual relationship with a Microsoft employee years before the couple\u2019s split.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
French Gates reiterated that she will not speak for others named in the files. \u201cWhat remains unanswered isn\u2019t mine to fill in,\u201d she said, adding that the disclosures inevitably reopen difficult memories even as she focuses on her current work and life. Epstein died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Philanthropist Melinda French Gates says newly released documents tied to Jeffrey Epstein have brought back \u201cvery, very painful\u201d periods from her marriage, after the files referenced her former husband, Bill Gates. Speaking on NPR\u2019s \u201cWild Card\u201d podcast, she added that everyone named\u2014\u201cincluding my former husband\u201d\u2014owes the public clear answers. French Gates, who divorced Bill Gates […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7194,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-5"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7189"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7196,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7189\/revisions\/7196"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hernet.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}