Melinda French Gates grew visibly distressed during a recent interview with The Guardian as she recounted the moment she met Jeffrey Epstein at his New York City townhouse in 2013, a meeting she says gave her nightmares and confirmed her instinct that the financier was, in her word, "evil."
The 61-year-old billionaire philanthropist and mother of three said her heart was racing as she recalled the encounter, which she attended alongside her then-husband Bill Gates. She told The Guardian that Epstein's relationship with Gates played a direct role in their divorce after 27 years of marriage.
Her remarks land at a moment when the Epstein scandal continues to pull powerful names into public view. Bill Gates, 70, recently appeared before the House Oversight Committee, where he delivered an opening statement addressing his ties to Epstein. The Department of Justice released a tranche of Epstein files earlier this year, and the fallout keeps spreading.
French Gates told The Guardian she knew immediately that something was wrong when she met Epstein at his Manhattan townhouse.
"Have you ever in your life been around somebody that you just know is evil?"
She said the encounter left her shaken. Looking out the window of her Seattle home during the interview, her hand on her chest, she said simply: "My heart is racing."
French Gates said she had always had a bad feeling about Epstein and that the meeting confirmed it. She urged others to trust their instincts about people they encounter.
"We need to listen to our feelings about people."
The timeline matters. Bill Gates was introduced to Epstein in 2011, two years before the townhouse meeting that his then-wife found so disturbing. Gates told the House Oversight Committee that Epstein lured him in by promising he could raise billions of dollars for global health causes. Yet the relationship persisted long enough to become a factor in the couple's 2021 divorce.
In his opening statement to the House Oversight Committee, Bill Gates denied ever visiting Epstein's island, ranch, or Florida home. He insisted he never victimized anyone. As we previously reported, Gates faced pointed questions from lawmakers about the duration and nature of his association with the convicted sex trafficker.
Gates also acknowledged that Epstein attempted to use knowledge of Gates' personal affairs as a pressure tactic to maintain the relationship.
"He was unsuccessful in this effort, but it shows some of the ways he tried to leverage his interactions with me to further his agenda."
Gates further stated: "While he may have sought to foster a personal relationship, I was never interested in that and never reciprocated."
But the DOJ's Epstein files tell a more uncomfortable story. Among the documents released earlier this year was an unsent email from Epstein alleging that Gates had contracted a sexually transmitted infection by cheating on his wife with "Russian girls" and was planning to secretly give French Gates antibiotics. Gates has fiercely denied those allegations.
He also told staff at a Gates Foundation town hall meeting that he did not do or see anything "illicit" with Epstein. And he gave his ex-wife credit for seeing through Epstein from the start: "To give her credit, she was always kind of skeptical about the Epstein thing."
French Gates told The Guardian the couple divorced for several reasons, among them, Bill Gates cheating on her and his ties to Epstein. After 27 years and three children, the marriage ended in 2021, two years after Epstein died at New York City's Metropolitan Correctional Center in what was ruled a suicide.
The personal cost has extended beyond the Gates family. Warren Buffett reportedly cut off contact with Bill Gates after the Epstein files surfaced, a sign of just how toxic the association has become even among the billionaire class.
French Gates has spoken publicly about the scandal before. In February, she told NPR she was relieved to be out of "all the muck" and away from the men involved. When the DOJ files dropped and her ex-husband's name surfaced again, she said she simply spoke the truth.
"He was an abhorrent human being, a horrid man, and so in these situations, this is a hard topic for me, you need to know that, my heart goes out to the young girls. I just spoke the truth, which is they deserve some peace, and they deserve some justice."
She added that she had been asked before what she thought of Epstein and had "spoken my truth about what I had experienced."
The broader Epstein investigation continues to generate official action on multiple fronts. New Mexico lawmakers have prepared subpoenas targeting the FBI, DOJ, and banks in connection with the Epstein case, reflecting bipartisan frustration with the pace and transparency of the probe.
The DOJ itself has faced scrutiny over its handling of the files. Officials have conceded that redaction errors occurred in the released documents, raising questions about what else may have been obscured, intentionally or otherwise. Attorney General Bondi shifted responsibility for those errors to her deputy, a move that did little to inspire public confidence.
Meanwhile, the circumstances of Epstein's 2019 death remain a source of deep public skepticism. A guard who watched Epstein's unit has denied being a mystery figure spotted near his cell the night before he died, adding another unresolved thread to a case that has never fully satisfied the public's demand for answers.
Bill Gates could not immediately be reached for comment on his ex-wife's latest remarks.
Set aside the emotions and the interview footage. The factual record is damning enough on its own. Gates met Epstein in 2011. His wife met Epstein in 2013 and came away horrified. Gates continued the association. Epstein allegedly tried to blackmail him. The marriage collapsed. The DOJ files surfaced. Gates went before Congress.
At every step, Melinda French Gates says she warned her then-husband. At every step, by his own account, he kept going back, drawn, he says, by the promise of philanthropic fundraising. That explanation asks the public to believe that one of the wealthiest men on earth needed a convicted sex offender to help him raise money for charity.
French Gates, for her part, is no longer interested in defending that story. She has moved on. The question is whether the institutions and officials still circling this case will do the same, or whether they will finally follow the facts wherever they lead.
The victims Melinda French Gates mentioned, the young girls who deserve peace and justice, are still waiting. The powerful men who dined at Epstein's townhouse owe them more than carefully worded opening statements.
