Melinda French Gates appeared to fight back tears as she opened up about her disturbing encounter with Jeffrey Epstein, saying the late convicted sex offender left her with a reaction so powerful that she still struggles to talk about it.
The billionaire philanthropist became visibly emotional in a new interview while recalling the one and only time she met Epstein, the disgraced financier whose crimes and connections to powerful men continue to haunt American politics, business and society years after his death.
French Gates has spoken before about her deep unease over her ex-husband Bill Gates’ association with Epstein. But her latest comments showed just how shaken she remains by the meeting.
When asked what disturbed her so much about Epstein, French Gates reportedly placed a hand on her chest and said, “My heart is racing.”
Then she asked the interviewer a chilling question: “Have you ever in your life been around somebody that you just know is evil?”
The moment appeared to overwhelm her.
When the interviewer asked whether French Gates was reliving the same feeling she had during that meeting, she tried to stop the conversation.
“I’m done. I can’t do any more questions,” she said.
But after a pause, French Gates continued, making it clear that her reaction to Epstein was not ordinary discomfort. It was something much darker.
“Yes,” she said. “Any woman who has ever been around somebody who is evil or had an experience and then if you’re around somebody else who is evil. Just no, no.”
According to the interview, French Gates appeared close to tears as she described the encounter as a “visceral reaction.”
Her comments echo what she has said in the past about meeting Epstein. In a 2022 interview with CBS News, French Gates revealed that she agreed to meet him once because she wanted to judge him for herself.
She regretted it almost immediately.
“I regretted it from the second I stepped in the door,” she said at the time. “He was abhorrent. He was evil personified.”
French Gates later said the meeting haunted her so badly that she had nightmares afterward.
Epstein’s connections to Bill Gates have long drawn scrutiny, especially after Epstein’s 2019 arrest on federal sex-trafficking charges. French Gates has made clear she objected to her then-husband’s ties to Epstein, and she has said those concerns were among the issues that contributed to the end of their 27-year marriage.
Bill Gates has acknowledged that French Gates had concerns early on, reportedly telling foundation staff that she had always been skeptical of Epstein.
For French Gates, the issue went far beyond personal discomfort. She has repeatedly suggested that her instincts about Epstein were right from the start.
Epstein died in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges, leaving behind a case that many critics say never delivered full accountability for his victims or for the powerful people in his orbit.
French Gates said she remains heartbroken for the women and girls who were abused, and furious that Epstein was not stopped sooner.
She called him a “horrid man” and said survivors deserved far more from the justice system.
“The justice system didn’t do its job. It did not do its job. Full stop,” she said.
Then she added the line that still hangs over the Epstein scandal years later: “This could have been stopped.”
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