The Daily Populous Wednesday February 4th, 2026 evening edition
Authored by abc.net.au and submitted by avatar6556

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has denied claims detailed in an email from the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein suggesting that he had contracted a sexually transmitted disease from trysts with women and sought to secretly give his then-wife antibiotics.

In an interview with Nine News on Wednesday night, Mr Gates spoke publicly about the allegations made against him for the first time since the latest batch of documents was published by the US government.

The latest documents suggest Mr Gates met with Epstein on multiple occasions after Epstein's 2008 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 antibiotics.

Mr Gates said that was not true.

"Jeffrey wrote an email to himself, that email was never sent," he told Nine.

"The email is, you know, false.

"So I don't know what his thinking was there.

"It just reminds me, you know, every minute I spent with regret and I, you know, apologise that I did that."

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When he was asked about his relationship with the late sex offender, he said, "I regret every minute I spent with him".

"It's factually true that I was only at dinners. You know, I never went to the island," he said.

"I never met any women. And so, you know, the more that comes out, the more clear it will be that although the time was a mistake, it had nothing to do with that kind of behaviour."

The response comes after his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, called on him to answer questions about the claims in the email, which appears among the roughly 3 million pages released by the US Justice Department last week.

Being named or pictured in the files does not imply wrongdoing or criminal activity.

"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," she said in an earlier interview with NPR's Wild Card podcast.

"They need to answer to those things, not me."

Ms French Gates said she had felt "unbelievable sadness" when she learned of the allegations in the documents.

The ABC is in the process of reviewing the files.

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 mails 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.

A picture of Bill Gates with an unknown woman was released on December 18, 2025. (Supplied: House Oversight Committee Democrats)

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 had earlier 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 French Gates and Bill Gates were married for 27 years. (Reuters: Kamil Zihnioglu)

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.

Millions more 'Epstein files' released by US government The US Department of Justice says it is releasing more than 3 million new documents from the "Epstein files".

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".

1ktogo on February 4th, 2026 at 13:21 UTC »

Epstein club rules: 1. Admit nothing 2. Deny everything 3. Accuse others

moediggity3 on February 4th, 2026 at 12:40 UTC »

We should hear both sides out. Get Epstein in here.

Oh…

hunt35744 on February 4th, 2026 at 12:38 UTC »

Well that’s that guys, guess he’s innocent