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”.

  • hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    4 hours ago

    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 hours 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?