Bill Gates confessed to cheating on his ex-wife Melinda French Gates in a speech nearly five years after their divorce.
The Microsoft co-founder, 70, admitted Tuesday that he “did have affairs” with two Russian women during their 27-year marriage, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“One was with a Russian bridge player I met at a bridge event, and the other was with a Russian nuclear physicist I met through business activities,” he told foundation staff.
Melinda did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.
Bill confessed to the affair while apologizing to staff for his affair with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Remarkably, the businessman claimed that he “did nothing illegal” and “saw nothing illegal” while traveling with Epstein in the United States and abroad.
“To be clear, I have never spent time with the victim or any of the women around her,” he insisted to staff.
Bill went on to give credit to his wife, saying Melinda, 61, had “always been a skeptic about the Epstein scandal.”
Although the entrepreneur did not identify the woman with whom he had an affair with Melinda, the Wall Street Journal claimed in May 2023 that Epstein blackmailed Bill over his affair with Mila Antonova, a bridge player whom Bill met in 2010.
Bill and Melinda married in 1994 and have three children, Jennifer, 29, Rory, 26, and Phoebe, 23.
When they broke up in 2021, Bill admitted through his agent that he had an affair with a Microsoft employee “almost 20 years ago.”
The following year, Melinda dodged a question on “CBS Sunday Morning” about whether her ex-husband had multiple affairs during their time together.
“These are the questions Bill has to answer,” she said jokingly.
Bill was criticized for being unfaithful during a Today show interview with Savannah Guthrie in the same year.
“I certainly made a mistake, and the responsibility is mine,” he cryptically told the NBC anchor, without elaborating further.
Bill went on to date Paula Heard, the widow of late CEO Mark Hurd, while Melinda’s last romantic relationship was with businessman Philip Vaughan.
