Bill Gates answered questions aboutJeffrey Epstein in a "PBS NewsHour" interview.- Gates said that he regretted having dinners with Epstein and that their meetings were a mistake.
- "Well, he's dead, so in general you always have to be careful," Gates said when asked about lessons learned.
Bill Gates answered questions in a "PBS NewsHour" interview on Tuesday about his meetings with the financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
"I had dinners with him. I regret doing that," the
In response to Woodruff's question about whether there was a lesson to learn from the experience, Gates said, "Well, he's dead, so in general you always have to be careful."
A New York Times investigation in 2019 found that Gates and Epstein met several times between 2011 and 2013. Epstein pleaded guilty to sex crimes in Florida in 2008.
Gates first addressed his ties with Epstein in November 2019. In a panel discussion, Gates said he'd "made a mistake in judgment in thinking those discussions would go to global health."
He added, "That money never appeared."
Gates didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.
Gates told Woodruff that Epstein had relationships with people who would give money to global-health causes, adding that "not nearly enough philanthropy goes in that direction."
But Gates said he decided to end the meetings.
"Those meetings were a mistake," Gates told Woodruff. "They didn't result in what he purported, and I cut them off."
The meetings were a long time ago, Gates said. He told Woodruff that there was "nothing new" to say about them.
Epstein died by suicide in August 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of child sex trafficking.
After Gates and Melinda French Gates announced their divorce in May, sources told The Daily Beast that French Gates had warned her husband about his relationship with Epstein and became upset after the couple met Epstein in New York in 2013.