Let’s hope Melinda French Gates isn’t prone to altitude sickness, considering her tendency to take the moral high road.
Since her 2021 divorce from Bill Gates, the 61-year-old mother of three has frequently taken subtle jabs at her ex-husband, all while maintaining an air of righteousness.
Last week, the situation escalated when Melinda fueled speculation by casting Bill into the spotlight amidst new revelations from Jeffrey Epstein’s files, where the 70-year-old tech mogul was mentioned.
Recently released documents from the Justice Department suggest Epstein claimed Gates contracted a sexually transmitted infection from encounters with ‘Russian girls’ and subsequently concealed it from Melinda.
Bill Gates has dismissed these allegations as unfounded, expressing regret for his association with Epstein. He maintains that their interactions were limited to group dinners focused on global health projects.
However, it seems Melinda remains unconvinced by Bill’s denials.
‘For me, it’s personally hard whenever those details come up, right? Because it brings back memories of some very, very painful times in my marriage,’ she said when asked about the new claims in an NPR interview released in full on Thursday.
‘I am so happy to be away from all the muck [in her marriage],’ she added.
‘For me, it’s personally hard whenever those details come up, right? Because it brings back memories of some very, very painful times in my marriage,’ Melinda said in an NPR interview
French Gates chucked her ex on a burning pyre of speculation after the 70-year-old tech titan was name dropped in yet another tranche of Jeffrey Epstein files
Perhaps, but it seems she’s still happy to sling it.
‘Whatever questions remain there of what — I can’t even begin to know all of it — those questions are for those people and for even my ex-husband,’ she continued. ‘They need to answer to those things, not me.’
Indeed, why bother with a dignified public silence or perhaps – if she actually knows anything – speaking to the authorities when you can land sucker punches amid the kind of sweeping generalities that only fuel the fire of conjecture?
Certainly, Republican South Carolina Congresswoman Nancy Mace is using Melinda’s interview to stoke the flames.
‘I watched Melinda Gates [sic] interview,’ wrote the outspoken sexual abuse survivor in a post on X. ‘I immediately asked the chairman of oversight, James Comer, to subpoena, Bill Gates. I have questions for Bill Gates about Epstein.’
One Bill (Clinton) is already due to testify before the House of Representatives about his connections to Epstein. Why not make it two?
And don’t forget, such is Melinda’s superior moral antenna that she met Epstein ‘exactly one time’, back in 2013 at his New York City home, an encounter she subsequently said left her ‘unsettled’.
‘I regretted it the second I walked in the door,’ she revealed in an interview with Gayle King on CBS This Morning in 2022.
Don’t forget, such is Melinda’s superior moral antenna that she met Epstein ‘exactly one time,’ back in 2013 at his New York City home, an encounter she subsequently said left her, ‘unsettled’
‘Whatever questions remain there of what — I can’t even begin to know all of it — those questions are for those people and for even my ex-husband,’ Melinda said (Pictured: Photo of Epstein and Gates, released by DOJ)
‘He was abhorrent. He was evil personified. My heart breaks for these women.’
Though it wasn’t just sixth sense, was it?
After all, Epstein had pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from someone under the age of 18 and served almost 13 months in custody in 2008, fully five years before Melinda visited his home.
Meanwhile, her husband’s long association with Epstein would continue for another year, though her distaste with the situation undoubtedly curtailed things.
A text message exchange between Epstein and an apparent adviser to Gates in 2017 released in November last year suggests that Melinda was the stumbling block to the disgraced financier’s attempt to rekindle relations with her ex-husband.
At the time, Epstein was apparently seeking Gates’ involvement in a donor-advised fund, a tax-deductible charitable vehicle he wanted to operate.
‘He wants to talk to you, but his wife won’t let him,’ the adviser told Epstein. In a series of texts a minute later, the adviser said of Gates, ‘he loves you,’ ‘he says hi,’ and ‘he feels bad about the [donor advised fund] btw He thought great idea, but wife wouldn’t allow.’
Yes, the seemingly stoic, sensible and wholesome Melinda, who co-chaired the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – the world’s second largest charitable organization until 2004 – has the right to feel let down.
It perhaps explains why her claims to have moved on don’t fully convince.
In my opinion, behind the rictus grin and therapy speak, the woman who met her husband the then-CEO of Microsoft in 1987 shortly after she joined the company as a multimedia product developer, seems to be still raging.
That may be why she seemingly still can’t resist covering old ground in a revenge tour that appears to roll on longer than her 27-year marriage.
It began, of course, with a score-settling memoir, The Next Day: Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward, a ‘coping with change’ handbook or, rather, a drip feed of disses aimed at her errant ex and his betrayals – including his acknowledged affair with a Microsoft employee in 2000.
Melinda’s memoir detailed the union, from her ex-husband’s wedding cake cutting faux pas (passing pieces to guests before his new bride), to how he left her in labor and at the hospital only to return reeking of burgers, to how she dumped a ‘sad and upset’ Bill in their usual restaurant.
The document dump includes allegations from Epstein that Gates caught a sexually transmitted disease from contact with ‘Russian girls’ and attempted to hide the infection from his wife (Pictured: Photo of Bill Gates and unknown woman, released by DOJ)
In my opinion, behind the rictus grin and therapy speak, Melinda is still raging.
Then, in body-con dresses, looking strong and happy, she seemed a natural poster girl for a thriving post-divorce life.
Now, five years on, the sniping from the sidelines is getting a little tired. Capitalizing on the horrors of the Epstein saga to score additional points would be quite another thing.
How can we really buy into what is supposed to be Melinda’s rebirth – Bill’s better half set free on her own terms – advancing her philanthropic and investment work when she still seems a women scorned.
Having long rued a lack of identity and ‘not being heard’ in her marriage – surprise, surprise when you’re the wife of the world’s fourth richest man who spearheaded the digital revolution – she still appears welded to the past.
‘It takes courage forging a different life,’ she said in an interview with People magazine last year. ‘When you change paths you realize, oh, it’s a big opening.’
For now, though, that seems to be mainly confined to Melinda’s increasingly mean mouth.
