Bill Gates “took responsibility for his actions” over ties to late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in a town hall meeting with employees of the Gates Foundation, a spokesperson for the philanthropic group told Reuters in a written statement on Tuesday.
The spokesperson’s comments came in response to a Wall Street Journal report, which cited a recording of the comments Gates made in the town hall.
Documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) have indicated that Gates and Epstein met repeatedly after Epstein’s prison term to discuss expanding the Microsoft founder’s philanthropic efforts.
According to the WSJ report, Gates told staff that it was a huge mistake to spend time with Epstein and bring Gates Foundation executives into meetings with the sex offender.
“I apologize to other people who are drawn into this because of the mistake that I made,” he said, according to the newspaper.
The WSJ added that Gates also acknowledged that he had two affairs with Russian women that Epstein later discovered, but that they did not involve Epstein’s victims.
“I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit,” Gates told the staff, according to the report.
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Met Epstein 2 years after he was released from jail
Earlier this month, the Gates Foundation said it did not make any financial payments to Epstein or employ him at any time.
Documents released by the DOJ also included pictures of the Microsoft founder posing with women whose faces are redacted. Gates has previously said the relationship with Epstein was confined to philanthropy-related discussions and has said it was a mistake to meet with him.
According to the WSJ, Gates told the foundation’s staff that the images were pictures that Epstein asked him to take with Epstein’s assistants after their meetings.
“To be clear, I never spent any time with victims, the women around him,” Gates added, according to the report.
The U.S. Department of Justice has released millions of pages of documents detailing the lifestyle and famous friends of notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. For The National, CBC’s Eli Glasner breaks down what the files have revealed so far, and what could happen next.
The Gates Foundation, started by Gates and his then-wife in 2000, is one of the world’s biggest funders of global health initiatives.
Gates first met Epstein in 2011, according to the WSJ report — something he also told Australia’s 9News in an interview earlier this year.
“It’s factually true that I was only at dinners — I never went to the island, I never met any women. The more that comes out, the more clear it will be,” he told 9News.
Epstein was convicted on state charges in Florida of procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute, resulting in a 18-month jail sentence that saw him released after 13 months. Gates, per the WSJ, told the town hall he was aware of an “18-month thing” involving Epstein.
Melinda Gates French, the billionaire’s ex-wife who left the foundation two years ago, has spoken publicly on how the Epstein relationship contributed to the rupture in the couple’s marriage.
“I did not like that he had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein, no. I made that clear to him,” she told CBS News.
A spokesperson for the Gates Foundation told Reuters that Gates held a scheduled town hall with the employees and answered questions on a range of issues, including the release of the Epstein files.
“In the town hall, Bill spoke candidly, addressing several questions in detail, and took responsibility for his actions.”
The spokesperson also said the Gates Foundation statement acknowledged what was shared by the billionaire during the town hall, and the statement is all that the foundation would say about the report.
Nobel laureate resigns from institute, regrets ties
The Epstein Transparency Act, passed in late 2025, mandated that the U.S. Justice Department release millions of files related to investigations into the sex offender, whose death in a Manhattan jail in 2019 was ruled a suicide.
The release of files has placed scrutiny on a number of individuals who had relationships with Epstein.
Former Norwegian Thorbjørn Jagland is facing corruption charges after documents showed he asked Epstein for help financing an apartment in Oslo and discussed a visit to Epstein’s private island, while Epstein asked for an introduction to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Police in England arrested Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former prince and brother of King Charles, on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Andrew Chang explains the allegations against Mountbatten-Windsor and their connection to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Images provided by The Canadian Press, Reuters and Getty Images
In the U.K., longtime Labour politician Peter Mandelson and the former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor have been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office, though neither has yet been charged.
In both the U.S. and Europe, other individuals have resigned from positions since the release of the files, including on Tuesday, when the Nobel laureate Dr. Richard Axel announced he was stepping down as co-director of a neuroscience institute at Columbia University.
Axel had denied any wrongdoing but said the relationship was a “serious error in judgment.”
“What has emerged about Epstein’s appalling conduct, the harm that he has caused to so many people, makes my association with him all the more painful and inexcusable,” said Axel.
On Monday, wellness guru Peter Attia, who was born and raised in Toronto and attended Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., said he was stepping away from a role as a CBS News contributor after email exchanges he had with Epstein surfaced in the documents.
