Add The New York Post on Google Melinda French Gates grew visibly distressed recalling the moment she met Jeffrey Epstein, saying the encounter gave her nightmares — and that she always knew he was “evil.”
The billionaire philanthropist also revealed that ex-husband Bill Gates’ relationship with the disgraced financier played a role in their divorce in an emotional interview with The Guardian.
French Gates, 61, told the outlet she always had a bad feeling about the sex trafficker, who died in 2019 at NYC’s Metropolitan Correctional Center in what was ruled a suicide.
She struggled to find her words when the interviewer asked her what she found so repulsive about Epstein when she met him in 2013 at his NYC townhouse during a meeting attended by her then-husband.
“My heart is racing,” the mother of three said as she looked out the window of her Seattle home with her hand on her chest, according to the outlet.
“Have you ever in your life been around somebody that you just know is evil?”
“We need to listen to our feelings about people,” French Gates added, even trying to end the interview amid the emotional whirlwind.
She previously spoke out against Epstein when her ex-husband and former Microsoft CEO came up earlier this year in the damning Epstein files released by the Department of Justice.
The couple were married for 27 years and divorced in 2021 for several reasons, including him cheating on her and his ties to Epstein, she told The Guardian.
In one unsent email from Epstein, he alleged that Gates, 70, contracted a sexually transmitted Infection (STI) by cheating on his wife with “Russian girls” and was planning to secretly give French Gates antibiotics.
Gates has fiercely denied the allegations and told staff at a Gates Foundation town hall meeting he didn’t do or see anything “illicit” with Epstein. He also acknowledged that his ex-wife was right about the disgraceful businessman all along.
“To give her credit, she was always kind of skeptical about the Epstein thing,” he said.
Gates was introduced to Epstein in 2011, according to an opening statement he gave to the House Oversight Committee Wednesday.
Epstein told him he could raise billions of dollars for global health causes, he testified.
“I never went to his island, his ranch, or his Florida home. I have never victimized anyone,” he said. “While he may have sought to foster a personal relationship, I was never interested in that and never reciprocated.”
Gates also alleged that Epstein tried to pressure him into continuing their relationship, using knowledge of his affairs as “leverage.”
“He was unsuccessful in this effort, but it shows some of the ways he tried to leverage his interactions with me to further his agenda,” Gates added.
French Gates told NPR in February she was relieved to be out of “all the muck” and away from the men involved in the sickening scandal.
“I had been asked before what I thought of Epstein, and I had spoken my truth about what I had experienced,” she told The Guardian.
“He was an abhorrent human being, a horrid man, and so in these situations — this is a hard topic for me, you need to know that — my heart goes out to the young girls.
“I just spoke the truth, which is they deserve some peace, and they deserve some justice.”
Bill Gates could not immediately be reached for comment.
