Melinda says Epstein gave her nightmares.
QUICK FACTS:
- Melinda Gates sat for her first interview since splitting up with Microsoft founder Bill Gates, speaking to “CBS Mornings” host Gayle King.
- Gates had a scathing critique of her ex-husband Bill Gates, including comments about her estranged husband’s friendship with accused pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
- Gates said that meeting Epstein left her with nightmares, telling King that she immediately regretted meeting the late playboy.
- Melinda Gates said she made her feelings about Epstein clear to her then-husband, Bill Gates, strongly implying that her husband’s friendship with Epstein contributed to their divorce.
- Bill Gates previously said that his friendship with Epstein was a “huge mistake.”
MELINDA’S COMMENTS IN PART:
- “He was abhorrent, evil personified,” Melinda Gates recalled. “I had nightmares about it afterwards. That’s why my heart breaks for these young women. That’s how I felt, and I am an older woman. He was awful.”
- “I did not like that [Bill] had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein,” she said. “I made that clear to him. I also met Jeffrey Epstein exactly one time. I wanted to see who this man was, and I regretted it from the second I stepped in the door.”
- On the issue of why they divorced, Melinda said, “It was not one thing, it was many things.” When asked if the Epstein relationship prompted the divorce she said, “Any of the questions remaining about what Bill’s relationship with him was … those are for Bill to answer. I made it very clear how I felt about him.”
BACKGROUND:
- Bill and Melinda gates met in 1987 and married in 1994, announcing that they would be ending their marriage after 27 years in 2021.
- Gates’s net worth was around $152 billion at the time of their split, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, leaving Melinda Gates with around $76 billion following the divorce.
- Melinda has said that while she and Gates are not friends, she does “wish him well.”
