Inside Bill Gates' Affair With Russian Woman And Their Epstein Connection

One of the two Russian women Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates admitted to having affairs during his 27-year marriage was helped financially by late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who used the leverage to blackmail the billionaire.

Gates has continued to insist that the women involved were not connected to Epstein's crimes and stated that he did not know about the financier's illegal activities at the time. However, Gates' association with Russian bridge player Mila Antonova first emerged due to her own ties to Epstein, exchanges in the Epstein files show.

Bill Gates And Mila Antonova's Relationship

Gates met Antonova first in 2009 at a bridge event in Washington, DC, as per The New York Post.

The Microsoft co-founder, then 53, had a non-romantic first meeting with the Russian, Antonova suggested a year later.

“I didn't beat him, but I tried to kick him,” she stated at a talk in New York, admitting that she had spent years trying to meet him.

It is unknown how long their affair lasted or when it started.

In 2013, Boris Nikolic, one of Gates' main advisers and confidants, introduced Antonova to Epstein as she sought help getting funds to start an online business that taught people how to play bridge. Epstein had already been convicted of child-sex offenses.

Epstein paid Antonova to attend a programming camp to help her pursue a career in software development, the Russian told The Wall Street Journal in 2023. At that time, Antonova said that the late sex offender claimed he was helping her because he “was wealthy and wanted to help people when he could.”

However, the motive was much more sinister. Epstein tried to force Gates to pay him that money and more under the threat of revealing his affair to his then-wife, the WSJ reported in 2023.

The convicted sex offender tried to leverage Gates' past relationship after he failed to persuade the billionaire to take part in a charitable fund that Epstein tried to establish with JPMorgan Chase, the report stated. According to the people who saw the message, the implication behind it was that Epstein could expose the affair if Gates didn't maintain an association between the two men.

A Gates spokesperson had previously claimed that the late sex offender had  “tried unsuccessfully to leverage a past relationship to threaten Mr Gates”, adding that the Microsoft co-founder had never paid Epstein despite the threats.

What Bill Gates Said About His Relationship With Epstein

During a town hall on February 24, the 70-year-old billionaire admitted that he failed to properly vet Epstein, despite knowing about the legal trouble that restricted his travel. Gates told employees that he continued to meet Epstein until 2014 and travelled with him on at least one private jet flight. However, the billionaire emphasised that he never stayed overnight at any of Epstein's properties and did not visit his private island.