Billionaire philanthropist Melinda French Gates has said her ex-husband, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, being named in new files relating to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein dredged up “painful times in my marriage”.

She told an NPR podcast she feels “unbelievable sadness” about the Epstein allegations and that the people named in the records, including her former husband, need to answer to it.

“I am so happy to be away from all the muck,” she said. The couple divorced in 2021 after 27 years of marriage.

Records released by the US justice department include an allegation by Epstein that Bill Gates caught a sexually transmitted disease. He has called the claim “absolutely absurd”.

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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    4 hours ago

    So she is very much suggesting here that he did go to pedo island and that he did have sex there…

    Not that it surprises me, but… I’ve hated Microsoft since it’s founding, it’s been one evil fucking company, but Bill Gates going down as a pedophile isn’t on my 2026 bingo card.

    Edit: Do we have any more sources on this? I somehow find it hard to believe

    • anon_8675309@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      Or she was just talking in general terms that he has some … issues.

      I would hate to find out that she knew he was a pedo.

    • WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      Yes, but he donated a fraction of his fortune to a set of charities chosen to maximize their PR value! That totally absolves him!

  • lennybird@lemmy.world
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    14 hours ago

    Holy shit some of these comments are fucking gross and victim-blamey in here. Why the fuck is Melinda the target here any differently than the victims themselves who didn’t speak up until later?

    I think we all know why none did, just as none of you would in all reality: fear, and who would actually listen without proof?

    See the #MeToo movement, how that backfired for so many women, let alone trying to take down one of the richest people of all time. Also for those who paid attention, Melinda had long heavily hinted at this shit.

    • pachrist@lemmy.world
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      11 hours ago

      I think most people’s issue is that all she’s ever done is hint, and now that there is less reason than ever to hint, that’s all she continues to do.

      This case needs someone to step up, corroborate the documents, and speak out so some of these things can be unredacted. She, as a billionaire, is best equipped, but chose to keep hinting on a podcast tour instead, and in the current climate, that makes people suspicious.

      • giantripdrop@piefed.social
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        11 hours ago

        I am just speculating here, like everyone else is, but she is probably just hinting because she doesn’t know shit.

        “My ex-husband, billionaire tech mogul Bill Gates, used to hang out with Jeff Epstein. Bill would occasionally meet up with him” is the extent should could say and prove. The rest is hearsay.

    • OctopusNemeses@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      It’s why nothing will ever change. People don’t care more than getting some potshots. It’s why the population is so easy to distract.

    • 1984@lemmy.today
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      12 hours ago

      Yup. If she would have went to the press without evidence, she would not have been believed. Still today people here are very quick to call someone a conspiracy theorist, including probably most of the people in this thread. They would have been attacking her. Not a single doubt in my mind about that.

      So at the same time as people say someone should speak up, they keep attacking people who does, unless their sources are accepted as evidence by official media sources.

      I dont blame her for being quiet, not at all.

      • village604@adultswim.fan
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        5 hours ago

        Not just not believed, but she could have easily been hit with a libel/slander suit if there wasn’t any evidence.

    • BremboTheFourth@piefed.ca
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      7 hours ago

      She is not a victim. I wouldn’t care about her at all outside of “tax her so she’s not a billionaire,” except this publicity does nothing for anyone but her. Chances are she’s paying big bucks to do these interviews. I mean it’s the same move her ex has pulled the last 20 years!

      Maybe she was ignorant and had no access to proof. Or maybe she’s into the same shit and wants a squeaky clean reputation to help avoid consequences. Either way, these types of articles shouldn’t be trusted, and they certainly shouldn’t be on the front page.

      • Timecircleline@sh.itjust.works
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        12 hours ago

        Still victim blaming. How do you decide what someone else chooses to be called? 27 years is a long time, and there are a lot of good reasons to hold onto a name even after the person you shared it with turns out to be bad for you. Does everyone who estranges from their father need to change their last name if that’s who they got it from?

    • hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      14 hours ago

      Why the fuck is Melinda the target here any differently than the victims themselves who didn’t speak up until later?

      She’s another billionaire who directly or indirectly benefitted from that circle

      • lennybird@lemmy.world
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        14 hours ago

        How did she benefit, apart from what I thought people around these parts would’ve been gleeful to hear that she “took from the rich,” and gave much of that money away?

        It was a failed marriage; the more she learned, the more she was disgusted. She took the money and left. We don’t even fucking know if she isn’t partly a victim herself. Nevertheless she’s speaking up now, which she in no way had to.

        Yet some here would paint her as Ghislaine Maxwell herself, what the fuck?

        • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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          7 hours ago

          We don’t even fucking know if she isn’t partly a victim herself.

          One email has Gates soliciting advice and help for dosing his wife’s food or drink with antibiotics, since he had an STD that he picked up from some of Epstein’s “Russian girls,” which Epstein seems willing to do.

          So, yeah, she’s a victim.

  • duelistsage@sh.itjust.works
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    15 hours ago

    Oh look, another rich asshole who knew what was happening but didn’t tell us.

    Fuck these people and fuck their families. We should be taking their wealth by force.

  • BremboTheFourth@piefed.ca
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    16 hours ago

    Forget Melinda Gates. I was subjected to 2 minutes of her garbage NPR interview yesterday before I was able to skip it; it’s fucking crazy that this woman is being allowed to do a goddamn press tour about this, like she’s the main character. Oh, are you sad that Bill was a total piece of shit and you did nothing? Go be sad on your own time, on the miniscule chance you’re somehow not a total psycho you can go find a therapist, I’m sure you can afford one. Stop hogging media time to wash your own bullshit image. I wonder how much she donated to get them to have her on.

    • merc@sh.itjust.works
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      5 hours ago

      Also, even ignoring the Epstein stuff, she stuck with Gates while he was doing a lot of really unethical things at Microsoft. She either liked him, or liked his billions enough to stick with him for a long time. She doesn’t get a pass because she started spending the billions she got from him in the divorce for charity. Where did those billions come from? She was standing by his side as he raked them in by illegally using his monopoly to crush competitors to Microsoft and threaten Linux / Linux users with patent infringement, lawsuits, etc.

      • BremboTheFourth@piefed.ca
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        15 hours ago

        Literally, get a bar of gold, melt it down, press it into gold foil tissues, carve another gold bar into a tissue box, and wipe her tears. She could spend $100,000 on doing that every day for the next 800 years before running out of money.

        Like if she had something genuine to add, that’d be something. You know, corroborate a victim’s story, make a call to action, “he should be in prison,” even “here’s something I’m doing to help” would still be reputation laundering but it would be something. She literally just went on to say (probably lie) that she didn’t know about it and it makes her so sad. Fucking billionaires, fuck.

  • SlacksMcTavish@lemmy.ml
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    18 hours ago

    Ok but if she knew about it and it’s why the divorce why didn’t she say shit, unless I’m missing something?

    • ViatorOmnium@piefed.social
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      18 hours ago

      Their divorce process started when their youngest daughter turned 18, so it might be the usual “sticking to a toxic wasteland of a marriage for the children” delusion.

    • HellsBelle@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      17 hours ago

      She may have had to sign an NDA for the divorce to go through.

      Dunno why y’all are blaming her for shit. She wasn’t the one involved with Epstein.

      • notwhoyouthink@lemmy.zip
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        8 hours ago

        Agreed - and who knows how much she actually knew, I highly doubt she knew everything and just the cherry picked version her ex gave her.

        Leaving a marriage, especially an abusive (speculation here) one, and especially when you’re raising children, and (yes one more) especially to someone as rich as he is no easy, simple, or fast task.

      • halcyoncmdr@piefed.social
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        17 hours ago

        For a lot of (if not most) people, knowing about the heinous shit happening and doing nothing about it (at minimum trying to go public) is an issue nearly as bad as actually participating.

      • SlacksMcTavish@lemmy.ml
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        17 hours ago

        Not blaming,and an NDA to cover illegal shit is enforceable?

        I’m not from USA, I don’t know how NDAs work there?

        • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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          17 hours ago

          No an NDA can’t cover withholding information about a crime. Asking someone to not divulge information under an NDA pertaining to a crime, is in itself a crime/an unenforceable nda

          • HellsBelle@sh.itjust.worksOP
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            17 hours ago

            If the NDA used generic language, ie: spouse is barred from sharing any private conversations or information shared within the marriage, it may be covered … but IANAL so …

            • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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              16 hours ago

              How do you see that playing out?

              Subject A says, “Ron told me he committed a crime”

              Subject B says “I’m suing you for divulging information that should be covered by the NDA”

              It would be admitting that the statement occurred. Thus now the entire NDA is void, and those court records can be used as testimony in a criminal investigation.

              • HellsBelle@sh.itjust.worksOP
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                15 hours ago

                Do you actually think Billy Boy sat her down and confessed to fucking teenagers???

                Jfc buddy. Use your brain. If anything he had to tell her he caught an STD so she would have to go have it taken care of. For most women that would be the last straw … marriage done.

            • RaskolnikovsAxe@lemmy.ca
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              14 hours ago

              If you don’t specify pronouns there is no way for anyone to know your gender on an Internet forum, so your derogatory animosity comes across as particularly petty.

                • RaskolnikovsAxe@lemmy.ca
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                  13 hours ago

                  No one thinks about that on an Internet forum and policing that seems incredibly petty. Especially when you do it by calling someone a dipshit.

                  Unless you go out of the way to tell people what pronouns you want, then don’t be upset when people pick one.

      • Leon@pawb.social
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        17 hours ago

        People aren’t blaming her for anything. If all she knew was that she was being cheated on because she suddenly got an STD, that’s one thing. What they’re saying is, if she knew about Bill going to Epstein to rape children, then she’d be complicit.

      • Diplomjodler@lemmy.world
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        17 hours ago

        An NDA doesn’t prevent you from reporting crimes to the relevant authorities. This woman was very much part of the system. She deserves credit for getting out but she’s by no means an angel.

        • FishFace@piefed.social
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          16 hours ago

          We don’t know if she had any information about crimes, or whether she went to the authorities ffs

      • duelistsage@sh.itjust.works
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        15 hours ago

        Dunno why y’all are blaming her for shit. She wasn’t the one involved with Epstein.

        She knew what was happening and didn’t tell us.

        Don’t be a fool.

  • 20cello@lemmy.world
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    16 hours ago

    Can’t be a philanthropist and a billionaire at the same time, fucking media know this

  • NatakuNox@lemmy.world
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    17 hours ago

    Dude gave her an std and she still won’t tell the world everything she knows?! The fuck.

  • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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    17 hours ago

    All I’m hearing is “she fucking knew what was going on and didn’t say shit”. IANAL, but does that equal an accessory or obstruction charge or what?

    • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
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      17 hours ago

      Bill probably had her tied up in court to say nothing or else she wouldnt get this or that(money) from his marriage.

      • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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        17 hours ago

        Imagine being the lawyer who delivered that ultimatum to her.

        Also, isn’t active concealment of a crime grounds for disbarment?

        Also also, if “not getting a good settlement” is really what deterred her, she’s just as guilty in my eyes. I’d think “wow so my husband is an enthusiastic pedophile” is grounds for just getting the fuck out of the marriage by any means possible while signing as little as possible, going to the Feds, and then simultaneously opening a massive civil lawsuit against him for psychological damage and abuse because he’s a fucking pedophile.

        Her tacitly helping to conceal this shit makes her an accessory to systematic pedophilic sexual abuse, at the very least, in my eyes.