A wild new report from the Wall Street Journal details how Jeffrey Epstein appeared to blackmail Bill Gates after finding out he’d had an affair.
In a stunning article by the Journal’s Khadeeja Safdar and Emily Glazer , Epstein was found to have learned about an affair between Gates and a Russian bridge player named Mila Antonova . Epstein met Antonova in 2013, three years after Gates. The disgraced sex offender then paid for Antonova to attend software coding school.
But according to the Journal, Epstein later tried to get Gates to pick up the tab — sending him an email in 2017 asking to be reimbursed for the cost of the tuition.
“The implication behind the message, according to people who have viewed it, was that Epstein could reveal the affair if Gates didn’t keep up an association between the two men,” Safdar and Glazer wrote.
A spokeswoman for Gates told the Journal, “Mr. Gates met with Epstein solely for philanthropic purposes. Having failed repeatedly to draw Mr. Gates beyond these matters, Epstein tried unsuccessfully to leverage a past relationship to threaten Mr. Gates.”
The spokeswoman added that no money changed hands.
“Mr. Gates had no financial dealings with Epstein,” she said.
Gates has repeatedly been grilled during interviews about the nature of his relationship with Epstein. The Microsoft mogul has called it a “huge mistake” that he spent time with Epstein, but has denied it was for anything other than seeking out philanthropic contributions.
Bill Gates and his wife Melinda got a divorce in 2021. Melinda cited her ex-husband’s ties to the “abhorrent” Epstein as part of the reason for the split.
