Bill Gates disclosed the names of Russian women with whom he had affairs during his marriage and stated that financier Jeffrey Epstein attempted to blackmail him with this information. This revelation came during his testimony before a U.S. Congressional committee investigating the Epstein case.
The founder of Microsoft was called to testify due to his name appearing in some of Epstein’s emails, with whom he had a relationship. Gates appeared before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, discussing his involvement in the Epstein case. He named two women he had affairs with: bridge player Mila Antonova and nuclear scientist Karima Nigmatulina.
These relationships occurred while he was still married to Melinda French, but he only confessed them to his foundation’s employees at the beginning of 2026. According to the testimony document published on Tuesday, June 24, Epstein attempted to blackmail him because of these relationships.
Blackmail Attempt via Email
Epstein’s effort to gain leverage over one of the world’s wealthiest individuals was first revealed in an email draft from July 18, 2013, released by the Department of Justice. In the draft, Epstein posed as Boris Nikolich, then an employee of Gates who was planning to leave his position. The publication The New York Post reproduced the content of the message verbatim.
The email began with the words: “Over the past few weeks, I have been drawn into a serious marital dispute between Melinda and Bill.” In it, the alleged employee stated that “as his right hand, I have repeatedly been asked [sic] and, looking back, I mistakenly agreed to participate in things that ranged from morally unacceptable to ethically indecent, and I have repeatedly been asked to do other things that approach and potentially cross the line of illegal.” The email further discussed helping Bill “get drugs to cope with the consequences of sex with Russian girls,” facilitating “his illegal meetings with married women,” and requesting Adderall (a drug) for bridge tournaments.
The email accused the billionaire of organizing “cover-ups [sic], so you could preserve your hard-earned reputation” and secretly administering antibiotics to his then-wife Melinda French. It detailed: “[You] beg me to delete emails about your STD, your request to provide you with antibiotics that you could secretly give to Melinda, and a description of your penis.”
Gates described the email draft as “an attempt at blackmail,” although in other parts of his testimony, he downplayed its significance. He told the committee: “Who knows if he ever sent it to Dr. Nikolich, but it seems that he considered using a mix of facts and fabrications as an attempt, almost like blackmail, to achieve some goal to improve Dr. Nikolich’s negotiating position as part of his exit from my company.”
According to The Wall Street Journal, Epstein threatened to reveal Gates’ extramarital affair with Mila Antonova in 2017, allegedly because Gates refused to join a charitable foundation that Epstein created with JP Morgan Chase. Gates stated that he was unaware of the criminal behavior of the deceased pedophile but admitted that he collaborated with him to advance his global philanthropic goals between 2011 and 2014.
Source: Clarín