As the Wall Street Journal now reports, the Russian woman Gates met at a bridge event is Mila Antonova. She was in her twenties at the time.

Epstein paid for the Russian woman’s education

“I had affairs, one with a Russian bridge player whom I met at bridge events and one with a Russian nuclear physicist whom I met through business activities,” Gates admitted in an internal event, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Epstein financed the young woman’s software development training. “Epstein agreed to pay everything, he transferred the money directly to the school. I don’t know why he did that,” she told the Wall Street Journal in 2023.

Affair as the main reason for divorce with ex-wife Melinda

How long the affair lasted is not known. She had tried for a long time in advance to get to know the Microsoft founder. The affair was one of the main reasons for his divorce from his ex-wife Melinda Gates.

Gates’ advisor at the time, Boris Nikolic, knew about the affairs – and ultimately told Epstein about them. Nikolic was close to both of them. Years later, Epstein apparently tried to blackmail Gates through Nikolic with his affair.

“I didn’t do anything illegal, I didn’t see anything illegal,” emphasized Gates. The renowned US portal has a recording of the Gates Foundation event. Accordingly, he apologized to those present for his Connection to Epstein.

“It was a big mistake to spend time with Epstein”

Accordingly, Gates stated that he met Epstein several times starting in 2011 – years after his conviction in 2008 for recruiting a minor for prostitution. He continued the contacts despite the concerns of his then wife Melinda French Gates; The last personal meeting took place in 2014. “I never stayed there,” Gates clarifies, “and I never visited Epstein’s island.”

Gates said, according to the WSJ, that his then-wife Melinda French Gates was always skeptical about his contacts with Epstein. She herself described the time of her marriage in connection with the Epstein publications as “very, very painful” in an interview with the US broadcaster NPR and was relieved to be “away from all the dirt.”