Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has once again said that he made a “huge mistake” in attending meetings with convicted sexual offender Jeffery Epstein.
In an interview with The Times, Mr Gates said: “At the time, I didn’t realize that by having those meetings it would be seen as giving him credibility.”
“You’re almost saying, ‘I forgive that type of behavior,’ or something. So clearly the way it’s seen, I made a huge mistake not understanding that.”
This is not the first time that Mr Gates has said he made a mistake by meeting with the convicted financier.
Last year in an interview with CNN, Mr Gates said: “I had several dinners with him, you know, hoping that what he said about getting billions of philanthropy for global health through contacts that he had might emerge. When it looked like that was not a real thing, that relationship ended.”
“It was a huge mistake to spend time with him, to give him the credibility of being there,” he had said.
The two had held meetings in relation to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.
The relationship the tech billionaire had with Epstein has been under the scanner, with numerous media reports, some without clear evidence, making a wide range of claims including that Mr Gates confided in Epstein about his toxic marriage.
Some reports also claimed Epstein’s involvement in the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The couple’s divorce was finalised last August, ending their 27-year-old marriage.
Mr Gates also said in previous interviews that he had stopped the meetings with Epstein once he found they would not be productive for his philanthropic foundation.
The meetings with Epstein allegedly were also a source of contention between the couple.
In March, in an interview with CBS Mornings’ Gayle King, Ms French Gates said she did not like the meetings with Epstein.
“It was many things. But I did not like that he’d had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein,” she said.
“I made that clear to him.”
She also spoke of the only time she met Epstein and said she “regretted it from the second I stepped in the door”.
“He was abhorrent. He was evil personified. I had nightmares about it afterwards. So my heart breaks for these young women,” she was quoted as saying.
