{"id":3337,"date":"2026-06-11T16:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T16:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/2026\/06\/11\/bill-gates-says-jeffrey-epstein-tried-to-blackmail-him-over-his-affairs\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T16:15:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T16:15:00","slug":"bill-gates-says-jeffrey-epstein-tried-to-blackmail-him-over-his-affairs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/2026\/06\/11\/bill-gates-says-jeffrey-epstein-tried-to-blackmail-him-over-his-affairs\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Gates Says Jeffrey Epstein Tried to Blackmail Him Over His Affairs"},"content":{"rendered":"<article id=\"post-556919\">\n<div>\n<p><span><span>Reading Time: <\/span> <span> 2<\/span> <span>minutes<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Bill Gates testified before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday as part of the ongoing investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and his vast network of powerful associates. <\/p>\n<p>During the closed-door testimony, Gates revealed that Epstein attempted to blackmail him.<\/p>\n<p>Gates told lawmakers that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehollywoodgossip.com\/2026\/06\/bill-gates-was-accused-of-more-than-20-affairs-during-marriage-to-melinda-report\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Epstein tried to use information about his extramarital affairs <\/a>as leverage in an effort to keep him within the disgraced financier\u2019s orbit.<\/p>\n<figure><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" alt=\"Microsoft Co-Founder Bill Gates departs the Rayburn House Office Building after testifying at a closed-door interview with the House Oversight Committee on Capitol Hill on June 10, 2026 in Washington, DC. \"   src=\"https:\/\/cdn.thehollywoodgossip.com\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2280948375-scaled.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-trellis-processed=\"1\"><figcaption>Microsoft Co-Founder Bill Gates departs the Rayburn House Office Building after testifying at a closed-door interview with the House Oversight Committee on Capitol Hill on June 10, 2026 in Washington, DC. <span> (Photo by Tom Brenner\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Probably not the kind of networking opportunity Gates had in mind when he befriended the late sex trafficker.<\/p>\n<p>According to <em><a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/bill-gates-says-epstein-tried-to-blackmail-him-over-his-infidelity-to-melinda-as-he-testifies-to-congress-11994473\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">People<\/a><\/em>, Gates acknowledged that Epstein became aware of affairs he had while married to Melinda French Gates and attempted to use that information to pressure him into maintaining contact.<\/p>\n<p>Gates said the effort was unsuccessful and insisted that his personal misconduct had nothing to do with his meetings with Epstein.<\/p>\n<p>The Microsoft co-founder has spent much of the past year trying to explain why he continued meeting with Epstein after the financier\u2019s 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor.<\/p>\n<p>Gates says he believed Epstein might be able to help raise money for global health initiatives. That plan apparently went nowhere.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p> <iframe title=\"Inside Bill Gates' Epstein closed-door testimony\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" data-cookieconsent=\"statistics, marketing\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kYZZ4X8eh6g?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe><div class=\"cookieconsent-optout-statistics cookieconsent-optout-marketing\">Please accept <a href=\"javascript:Cookiebot.renew()\">statistics, marketing<\/a> cookies to watch this video.<\/div> <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Gates testified that he cut off contact after realizing Epstein couldn\u2019t deliver the philanthropic support he had promised. Their association reportedly ended in 2014.<\/p>\n<p>If there\u2019s one sentiment that Gates has repeated consistently throughout this saga, it\u2019s that his relationship with Epstein was a mistake.<\/p>\n<p>During his congressional appearance, Gates again described <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehollywoodgossip.com\/2026\/02\/bill-gates-admits-to-regrets-over-esptein-friendship-denies-hiding-std-from-wife\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">his dealings with Epstein<\/a> as a \u201cgrave error in judgment\u201d and expressed regret for ever associating with him. <\/p>\n<p>He maintained that he never witnessed illegal conduct, never visited Epstein\u2019s private island, and never participated in any criminal activity.<\/p>\n<p>Still, critics have long questioned why one of the world\u2019s most powerful businessmen continued meeting with a convicted sex offender in the first place.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s a question Gates may never fully escape.<\/p>\n<blockquote data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DZVq8BYgfok\/?utm_source=ig_embed&#038;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\"><\/blockquote>\n<p>The testimony comes amid renewed attention on Epstein\u2019s connections to wealthy and influential figures following the release of additional documents tied to the federal investigation.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehollywoodgossip.com\/2026\/02\/bill-gates-admits-to-cheating-on-ex-wife-with-multiple-russian-women\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Gates publicly acknowledged past affairs<\/a> and admitted that his association with Epstein had caused significant damage to both his reputation and the work of the Gates Foundation. <\/p>\n<p>Reports have also revealed allegations that Epstein attempted to use knowledge of Gates\u2019 personal life as a means of manipulating the tech billionaire sevral years ago.<\/p>\n<p>For now, Gates is not accused of any wrongdoing related to Epstein\u2019s crimes.<\/p>\n<p>But as Congress continues digging into Epstein\u2019s network, the embattled philanthropist appears determined to make one thing clear:<\/p>\n<p>Meeting Jeffrey Epstein remains one of the biggest regrets of his life.<\/p>\n<p>We will have further updates on this developing story as new information becomes available.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reading Time: 2 minutes Bill Gates testified before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday as part of the ongoing investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and his vast network of powerful associates. During the closed-door testimony, Gates revealed that Epstein attempted to blackmail him. Gates told lawmakers that Epstein tried to use information about his extramarital affairs as leverage in an effort to keep him within the disgraced financier\u2019s orbit. Microsoft Co-Founder Bill Gates departs the Rayburn House Office Building after testifying at a closed-door interview with the House Oversight Committee on Capitol Hill on June 10, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Tom Brenner\/Getty Images) Probably not the kind of networking [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3338,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1809,2,516,28,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bill-gates","category-hollywood","category-jeffrey-epstein","category-news","category-spotlight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}