Billionaire philanthropist Melinda French Gates has said her ex-husband, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, being named in new files relating to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein dredged up “painful times in my marriage”.

She told an NPR podcast she feels “unbelievable sadness” about the Epstein allegations and that the people named in the records, including her former husband, need to answer to it.

“I am so happy to be away from all the muck,” she said. The couple divorced in 2021 after 27 years of marriage.

Records released by the US justice department include an allegation by Epstein that Bill Gates caught a sexually transmitted disease. He has called the claim “absolutely absurd”.

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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    4 days ago

    So she is very much suggesting here that he did go to pedo island and that he did have sex there…

    Not that it surprises me, but… I’ve hated Microsoft since it’s founding, it’s been one evil fucking company, but Bill Gates going down as a pedophile isn’t on my 2026 bingo card.

  • lennybird@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Holy shit some of these comments are fucking gross and victim-blamey in here. Why the fuck is Melinda the target here any differently than the victims themselves who didn’t speak up until later?

    I think we all know why none did, just as none of you would in all reality: fear, and who would actually listen without proof?

    See the #MeToo movement, how that backfired for so many women, let alone trying to take down one of the richest people of all time. Also for those who paid attention, Melinda had long heavily hinted at this shit.

    • pachrist@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      I think most people’s issue is that all she’s ever done is hint, and now that there is less reason than ever to hint, that’s all she continues to do.

      This case needs someone to step up, corroborate the documents, and speak out so some of these things can be unredacted. She, as a billionaire, is best equipped, but chose to keep hinting on a podcast tour instead, and in the current climate, that makes people suspicious.

      • giantripdrop@piefed.social
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        4 days ago

        I am just speculating here, like everyone else is, but she is probably just hinting because she doesn’t know shit.

        “My ex-husband, billionaire tech mogul Bill Gates, used to hang out with Jeff Epstein. Bill would occasionally meet up with him” is the extent should could say and prove. The rest is hearsay.

      • Timecircleline@sh.itjust.works
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        4 days ago

        Still victim blaming. How do you decide what someone else chooses to be called? 27 years is a long time, and there are a lot of good reasons to hold onto a name even after the person you shared it with turns out to be bad for you. Does everyone who estranges from their father need to change their last name if that’s who they got it from?

        • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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          4 days ago

          Yes, there are good reasons here, namely political and power influence.

          Funny how this is the victim, not the children on the Island .

    • 1984@lemmy.today
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      4 days ago

      Yup. If she would have went to the press without evidence, she would not have been believed. Still today people here are very quick to call someone a conspiracy theorist, including probably most of the people in this thread. They would have been attacking her. Not a single doubt in my mind about that.

      So at the same time as people say someone should speak up, they keep attacking people who does, unless their sources are accepted as evidence by official media sources.

      I dont blame her for being quiet, not at all.

    • hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      Why the fuck is Melinda the target here any differently than the victims themselves who didn’t speak up until later?

      She’s another billionaire who directly or indirectly benefitted from that circle

      • lennybird@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        How did she benefit, apart from what I thought people around these parts would’ve been gleeful to hear that she “took from the rich,” and gave much of that money away?

        It was a failed marriage; the more she learned, the more she was disgusted. She took the money and left. We don’t even fucking know if she isn’t partly a victim herself. Nevertheless she’s speaking up now, which she in no way had to.

        Yet some here would paint her as Ghislaine Maxwell herself, what the fuck?

  • duelistsage@sh.itjust.works
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    4 days ago

    Oh look, another rich asshole who knew what was happening but didn’t tell us.

    Fuck these people and fuck their families. We should be taking their wealth by force.

  • 20cello@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    Can’t be a philanthropist and a billionaire at the same time, fucking media know this

  • BremboTheFourth@piefed.ca
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    Forget Melinda Gates. I was subjected to 2 minutes of her garbage NPR interview yesterday before I was able to skip it; it’s fucking crazy that this woman is being allowed to do a goddamn press tour about this, like she’s the main character. Oh, are you sad that Bill was a total piece of shit and you did nothing? Go be sad on your own time, on the miniscule chance you’re somehow not a total psycho you can go find a therapist, I’m sure you can afford one. Stop hogging media time to wash your own bullshit image. I wonder how much she donated to get them to have her on.

      • BremboTheFourth@piefed.ca
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        4 days ago

        Literally, get a bar of gold, melt it down, press it into gold foil tissues, carve another gold bar into a tissue box, and wipe her tears. She could spend $100,000 on doing that every day for the next 800 years before running out of money.

        Like if she had something genuine to add, that’d be something. You know, corroborate a victim’s story, make a call to action, “he should be in prison,” even “here’s something I’m doing to help” would still be reputation laundering but it would be something. She literally just went on to say (probably lie) that she didn’t know about it and it makes her so sad. Fucking billionaires, fuck.

  • NatakuNox@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    Dude gave her an std and she still won’t tell the world everything she knows?! The fuck.

  • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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    All I’m hearing is “she fucking knew what was going on and didn’t say shit”. IANAL, but does that equal an accessory or obstruction charge or what?

      • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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        5 days ago

        Imagine being the lawyer who delivered that ultimatum to her.

        Also, isn’t active concealment of a crime grounds for disbarment?

        Also also, if “not getting a good settlement” is really what deterred her, she’s just as guilty in my eyes. I’d think “wow so my husband is an enthusiastic pedophile” is grounds for just getting the fuck out of the marriage by any means possible while signing as little as possible, going to the Feds, and then simultaneously opening a massive civil lawsuit against him for psychological damage and abuse because he’s a fucking pedophile.

        Her tacitly helping to conceal this shit makes her an accessory to systematic pedophilic sexual abuse, at the very least, in my eyes.

  • SlacksMcTavish@lemmy.ml
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    Ok but if she knew about it and it’s why the divorce why didn’t she say shit, unless I’m missing something?

    • HellsBelle@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      She may have had to sign an NDA for the divorce to go through.

      Dunno why y’all are blaming her for shit. She wasn’t the one involved with Epstein.

      • duelistsage@sh.itjust.works
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        4 days ago

        Dunno why y’all are blaming her for shit. She wasn’t the one involved with Epstein.

        She knew what was happening and didn’t tell us.

        Don’t be a fool.

      • Diplomjodler@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        An NDA doesn’t prevent you from reporting crimes to the relevant authorities. This woman was very much part of the system. She deserves credit for getting out but she’s by no means an angel.

        • FishFace@piefed.social
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          We don’t know if she had any information about crimes, or whether she went to the authorities ffs

      • Leon@pawb.social
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        People aren’t blaming her for anything. If all she knew was that she was being cheated on because she suddenly got an STD, that’s one thing. What they’re saying is, if she knew about Bill going to Epstein to rape children, then she’d be complicit.

      • SlacksMcTavish@lemmy.ml
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        5 days ago

        Not blaming,and an NDA to cover illegal shit is enforceable?

        I’m not from USA, I don’t know how NDAs work there?

            • RaskolnikovsAxe@lemmy.ca
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              4 days ago

              If you don’t specify pronouns there is no way for anyone to know your gender on an Internet forum, so your derogatory animosity comes across as particularly petty.

                • RaskolnikovsAxe@lemmy.ca
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                  No one thinks about that on an Internet forum and policing that seems incredibly petty. Especially when you do it by calling someone a dipshit.

                  Unless you go out of the way to tell people what pronouns you want, then don’t be upset when people pick one.

        • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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          5 days ago

          No an NDA can’t cover withholding information about a crime. Asking someone to not divulge information under an NDA pertaining to a crime, is in itself a crime/an unenforceable nda

          • HellsBelle@sh.itjust.worksOP
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            If the NDA used generic language, ie: spouse is barred from sharing any private conversations or information shared within the marriage, it may be covered … but IANAL so …

            • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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              How do you see that playing out?

              Subject A says, “Ron told me he committed a crime”

              Subject B says “I’m suing you for divulging information that should be covered by the NDA”

              It would be admitting that the statement occurred. Thus now the entire NDA is void, and those court records can be used as testimony in a criminal investigation.

              • HellsBelle@sh.itjust.worksOP
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                4 days ago

                Do you actually think Billy Boy sat her down and confessed to fucking teenagers???

                Jfc buddy. Use your brain. If anything he had to tell her he caught an STD so she would have to go have it taken care of. For most women that would be the last straw … marriage done.

      • halcyoncmdr@piefed.social
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        5 days ago

        For a lot of (if not most) people, knowing about the heinous shit happening and doing nothing about it (at minimum trying to go public) is an issue nearly as bad as actually participating.

      • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
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        she probably knew or at least highly suspected he was involved. his “charity initiative” always seemed disengenious.

    • ViatorOmnium@piefed.social
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      5 days ago

      Their divorce process started when their youngest daughter turned 18, so it might be the usual “sticking to a toxic wasteland of a marriage for the children” delusion.