Melinda French Gates Reveals Whether She's Forgiven Ex-Husband Bill Gates Amid Tech Mogul's Ongoing Scrutiny Over Jeffrey Epstein Ties

Melinda French Gates is opening up about forgiving ex-husband Bill Gates.

On the Thursday, February 5, episode of NPR’s "Wild Card" podcast, host Rachel Martin and the philanthropist got on the topic of learning to trust and forgive in relationships.

When asked whether she’s forgiven the tech mogul — to whom she was married to for 27 years — Melinda, 61, replied, "I think I'm gonna keep that one to myself."

However, she then called it a "work in progress" and subsequently added, "I think I’m getting there."

Elsewhere in the interview, she addressed the Microsoft co-founder's involvement in the files related to the investigation into late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

When pressed about the situation, Melinda said she feels "unbelievable sadness" that Bill, the father of her three children, was connected to the convicted s-- offender.

"No girl should ever be put in the situation that they were put in by Epstein and whatever was going on with all of the various people around him," she said. "I mean, it's just, it's beyond heartbreaking, right? I remember being those ages, those girls were, I remember my daughters being those ages, right?"

She went on to say how it's "personally hard" for her when certain "details come up," as they evoke "memories of very, very painful times" in her marriage.

Melinda was most likely referring to the recent claim that her billionaire ex allegedly caught an STD after cheating on her with "Russian girls."

Included in the latest batch of documents released by the DOJ on Friday, January 30, was a message from Jeffrey that read: "TO add insult to the injury you them [sic] implore me to please delete the emails regarding your std, your request that I provide you antibiotics that you can surreptitiously give to Melinda and the description of your p----."

Other emails that Jeffrey seemingly wrote to himself, assumed to be drafts, explained why he was resigning from the couple's foundation.

"I have been caught up in a severe marital dispute between Melinda and Bill... In my role as his right hand man I have been asked and wrongly acquiesced into participating in things that have ranged from the morally inappropriate, to the ethically unsound and have been repeatedly asked to do thing (sic) that get near and potentially over the line into the illegal," he penned.

Bill denied ever visiting the notorious Epstein island and slammed claims he contracted a sexually transmitted disease in an interview with 9 News Australia released on Wednesday, February 4.

The 70-year-old insisted, "I never went to the island, I never met any women. And so, the more that comes out, the more clear it’ll be that, although the time was a mistake, it had nothing to do with that kind of behavior."

Bills' remarks come after he released an official statement responding to the emails on January 31.

"These claims are absolutely absurd and completely false,” a spokesperson for Bill said. "The only thing these documents demonstrate is Epstein’s frustration that he did not have an ongoing relationship with Gates and the lengths he would go to entrap and defame."

Melinda and Bill went their separate ways in 2021. Their divorce remains among one of the most expensive in history, with the estranged couple reaching an estimated $76 billion settlement.

She reportedly met with divorce lawyers in 2019 when Bill's ties to the pedophile became public.

Melinda revealed she "had to" call her marriage off due to a lack of trust during an April 2025 appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, though she didn't share other details.

The former couple share three children: Jennifer, 29, Rory, 26 and Phoebe, 23.