Bill Gates Finally addressing her reported friendship with a convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“In the past, I was foolish to spend any time with him. And he, sort of, had time with different people to spend time with other people," Gates, 69, told The The Wall Street Journal In a wide-ranging interview published on Friday, January 24. "So yeah, I think I was pretty stupid. I thought it would help me in global health philanthropy. Actually, failing to do that was just a huge mistake."

Gates also said the controversies surrounding Epstein before his 2019 arrest and death in August of the same year have made him more wary of meeting new people now. "Sure," he said The Wall Street Journal. "I mean are you kidding?"

2022 Gates' ex-wife Melinda French Gates Citing her alleged relationship with Epstein as one of the factors that led to their divorce. “It was not one thing, it was many things. But I don't like that he had a meeting with Jeffrey Epstein," he said CBS Morning At this point "I cleaned him up."

French Gates also said Gail King She met Epstein "just in time" to get a sense of what he was like. He added, "I regretted it from the second I stepped in the door." “He was mischievous. He was an evil person. I had nightmares about it afterwards. … It was horrible, and he was horrible. "

Authority Investigation started In 2005, Epstein was accused of sexual assault. He spent 13 months in prison before he was rearrested in July 2019 on federal charges of sex trafficking involving minors. A month after his arrest, he committed suicide in prison at the age of 66.

His friendship with Epstein is not the only relationship Gates has. In an interview with Times of London Published on Saturday, January 25, Gabes described her divorce from French Gates as "the mistake I regret the most".

He tried to emulate his parents' marriage, he added to himself. “I encouraged Melinda to be a bit quieter than my mother, but we were both quite driven. I spent more time with the kids than my dad, but the ratio was still 10:1, with Melinda doing most of the work for the kids. We had a great time. "

Gates also said that he thinks that "there's something strange about spending your entire adult life with one person." He added, “When Melinda and I met, I was fairly successful but not ridiculously successful - it came at a time when we were together. So, he saw me a lot. When we got divorced, it was tough and then he decided to leave the foundation - I was disappointed that he took the option to leave. "

In addition to the divorce, she added, she had experienced other failures — "but none of them major."