'Evil personified': Melinda French Gates speaks about meeting Jeffrey Epstein

‘Evil personified’: Melinda French Gates speaks about meeting Jeffrey Epstein

Melinda French Gates

Melinda French Gates has spoken publicly for the first time since her divorce from Bill Gates was finalised, sharing details about the marriage and the one time she met convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Speaking in an interview with CBS’s Gayle King about the end of her 27-year marriage to Bill Gates, she said there wasn’t “one moment or one specific thing that happened” that led to the divorce.

“There just came a point in time where there was enough there that I realized it just wasn’t healthy. I couldn’t trust what we had,” she said.

French Gates said Bill Gates’ meetings with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein had also played a role in the marriage breakdown.

“As I said, it’s not one thing, it was many things. But I did not like that he’d had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein, no,” said French Gates.

Speaking about the one time she met Epstein, she said she regretted it from the moment she stepped in the door.

“He was abhorrent. He was evil personified. I had nightmares about it afterwards. So, you know, my heart breaks for these young women, because that’s how I felt, and here I’m an older woman. My god, I feel terrible for those young women. It was awful.”

French Gates told Gayle King she will continue to work with her ex husband, as part of her work at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She said they were “friendly” but not “friends”.

“We certainly have a working relationship and I would say we’re friendly at this point,” she said.

“Friends is a different word for me … that might come over time but for me there’s still healing that needs to happen.”

French Gates said her divorce from Bill was emotional and painful.

“Look, I had a lot of tears for many days, I mean, days where I’m literally laying on the floor and the carpet this close to me. And I’m literally thinking, ‘How can this be? How can I get up? How am I gonna move forward?’

That’s part of the grieving process. You’re grieving a loss of something you thought you had and thought you had for your lifetime. I mean, this is painful stuff… I do feel like I’m turning a page in the chapter now.”

In February, Melinda French Gates said that she would be looking beyond the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to give away the rest of her fortune. It was reported she would continue to donate to the foundation, but would also focus on other charitable causes.

She is also growing her own company, Pivotal Ventures, focused on funding projects that empower women.

“I do believe that if you are lucky enough to be a billionaire, believe me, you can give away half of it and not change your life. And we should. We should have a society where if for whatever reason wealth is in your hands, you, you put it back in society so that you change and you lift up others,” French Gates said.  

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