Melinda Gates had spoken with divorce lawyers over a year before she finally parted ways with Microsoft founder Bill Gates last week, mentioning concerns she had about her husband's dealings with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to a news report published in the Wall Street Journal on Sunday.
She discussed the issue with several attorneys in October 2019, saying the marriage was "irretrievably broken," the Wall Street Journal said citing documents and people in the know of the matter to back up the report. Her discomfort about her ex-husband's ties to Epstein dates back to at least 2013, the report said.
The New York Times had reported in October 2019 that the billionaire had met with Epstein several times, and once stayed late at his New York townhouse. A spokeswoman for Bill Gates had said at the time that the meetings had taken place to discuss issues related to philanthropy. Epstein had died in jail two months ago while awaiting trial on federal charges related to child sex trafficking.
Bill and Melinda Gates divorce settlement had involved legal teams working with a mediator to divide their fortune, which the Bloomberg Billionaires Index pegs at $145 billion.
The couple said that they plan on remaining co-chairs and trustees of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation along with billionaire Warren Buffett who is the foundation's third trustee. The trio have pledged to give away most of their wealth as charity.
Days before Epstein died in a New York jail, he had named a little-known biotech venture capitalist Boris Nikolic as backup executor of his will. Nikolic had worked as a science adviser to Bill Gates and more recently funded more than a dozen firms in gene editing and other health technologies.
Epstein was arrested in July 2019 on federal child sex trafficking charges related to his alleged sexual abuse of dozens of underage girls. Several women had said that Epstein sexually abused and exploited them when they were underage. Ghislaine Maxwell was accused of acting as a recruiter of teenage girls for her former boyfriend, Epstein, whose properties she managed for years.
