Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates said meeting with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was a “huge mistake” in an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper Wednesday.
Mr. Gates said he had several dinners with Mr. Epstein to discuss global health philanthropy, hoping his connections could help raise billions.
“When it looked like that wasn’t a real thing, that relationship ended,” said Mr. Gates during the “Anderson Cooper 360” program. “It was a huge mistake to spend time with him, to give him the credibility of being there.”
A spokeswoman for Mr. Gates said in 2019 he regretted meeting with Mr. Epstein, who died in jail in August 2019, awaiting trial on federal charges related to sex trafficking. In a September 2019 interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Gates said he met Mr. Epstein but “didn’t have any business relationship or friendship with him” and wasn’t aware of any donations from him.
The CNN interview comes two days after Bill and Melinda French Gates completed their divorce. The Journal previously reported Ms. French Gates was concerned by her former husband’s meetings with Mr. Epstein, with her concerns dating as far back as 2013. Mr. Gates didn’t respond directly to questions from Mr. Cooper about those reports from the Journal and the New York Times .
