Bill Gates’ link with ‘evil personified’ Jeffrey Epstein caused our divorce, says Melinda

Melinda French, ex-wife of Bill Gates, has revealed that the billionaire businessman’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the American financier and convicted sex offender, informed their divorce.

In August 2021, Bill and Melinda finalised their divorce after 27 years together.

She spoke for the first time on their divorce on Thursday when she featured on ‘CBS Mornings‘ hosted by Gayle King.

“As I said it’s not one thing, it was many things. But I did not like that he’d had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein, no. I made that clear to him,” she said.

The 51-year-old said the only time she met Epstein, he was “abhorrent and evil personified.”

Melinda also said she regretted the encounter as she “had nightmares about the it afterwards.”

“I also met Jeffrey Epstein exactly one time. Yes, because I wanted to see who this man was. And I regretted it from the second I stepped in the door. He was abhorrent. He was evil personified,” she added.

“I had nightmares about it afterwards. So you know, my heart breaks for these young women because that’s how I felt, and here I’m an older woman. My God, I feel terrible for those young women. It’s awful.”

During the explosive interview, Melinda also spoke on Bill’s alleged infidelity in 2000, adding that such affected her trust in the co-founder of Microsoft

“I certainly believe in forgiveness, so I thought we had worked through some of that. It wasn’t one moment or one specific thing that happened,” she added.

“There just came a point in time where there was enough there that I realized it just wasn’t healthy, and I couldn’t trust what we had.”

King then asked: “Once trust is broken, isn’t it hard to get it back?” to which Melinda replied: “Very, it’s very hard to get it back, in any relationship.”

Bill had earlier admitted he “made a huge mistake” associating with Epstein last year when their divorce was finalised.