A billionaire’s famous philanthropy did not extend to his extramarital affairs, it was claimed.
Bill Gates is facing intense scrutiny over his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein after the U.S. Department of Justice released a slew of documents on January 30. Epstein claimed in a 2017 email that Gates left his former Russian mistress “broke” and sleeping on friends’ couches, and that if her precarious financial situation was made public, Donald Trump would disappear from the front pages.
Gates, 70, who is worth an estimated $104 billion and is one of the 20 richest people in the world, is one of the most high-profile victims of the unfolding Epstein dossier.
Epstein’s dossier shows the financier (right) had close ties to Gates.
In a July 2017 email sent from Epstein’s personal Gmail account to Gates adviser Boris Nikolic, Epstein wrote that Gates’ “ex-bridge girl” — who appeared to be bridge player Mila Antonova, nearly 30 years his junior — was “broke” and “penniless.”
Epstein claimed she was “living on a friend’s couch” and “really needed the money,” before adding: “I sent her some.”
In the email, which is riddled with typos, the convicted child sex offender then mocked Nikolic’s “friend bill” as a “crazy guy” and said Gates’ “ex girl…can’t afford air conditioning and can’t afford (sic) to go to bridge.”
“The world’s richest man is so cheap, his ex-bridge girl and toys, living on a friend’s couch,” Epstein said, adding: “This story will take Trump off the front page.”
The Epstein emails come as Trump is basking in the furor over the Trump Tower Russia meeting, after emails released by Donald Trump Jr. showed he welcomed “very high-level and sensitive information” about Hillary Clinton from a Kremlin-linked lawyer.
Gates (right) has been close to Donald Trump since Trump took office and attended a September 2025 dinner in the State Dining Room of the White House with a group of tech leaders. /SAUL LOEB /SAUL LOEB/AFP (via Getty Images)
The incident dominated cable news and front-page headlines while Robert Mueller examined whether the meeting violated campaign finance or conspiracy laws, although prosecutors ultimately did not bring charges against the meeting.
Epstein’s emails appeared to refer to Antonova, who, according to a May 2023 Wall Street Journal report, had an affair with Gates around 2010 when she was in her twenties. According to the Wall Street Journal, Epstein met Antonova in 2013 after Nikolic introduced her and agreed to pay for her software coding classes.
Gates and his alleged former Russian mistress Mira Antonova. /IginiteNYC/YouTube
Four years later, in 2017, Epstein sent Gates an email demanding repayment, the Wall Street Journal reported, in a move that was widely interpreted as an attempt to gain influence over one of the world’s richest men. The Telegraph later reported in 2023 that Antonova was an associate of “notorious” Kremlin spy Anna Chapman.
Chapman was a charismatic member of a Russian spy ring who was deported from the United States in 2010 after his covert cover was exposed. /Contributor/Getty Images
Gates said his meeting with Epstein was purely for charity and was “a huge mistake.” A spokesman insisted that Epstein’s attempts to portray himself as an adviser to Gates were lies and that “Mr. Gates had no financial dealings with Epstein,” including for Antonova’s tuition.
“Mr. Gates’ meetings with Epstein were for charitable purposes only. Epstein repeatedly failed to free Mr. Gates from these issues and therefore attempted to use past relationships to threaten Mr. Gates, without success,” a spokesperson for Gates told The Daily Beast.
Antonova previously told the Wall Street Journal that she had no idea who Epstein was when they met and believed he was just a wealthy businessman willing to help her bridge teaching startup. She said he later let her stay briefly in an apartment in New York but they had little interaction and that she was now “disgusted” by what she learned about him.
Nikolic, a doctor and investor who served as Gates’ chief scientific adviser from 2009 to 2014, said he first met Epstein in Gates’ official capacity and now regrets the contact and denies having business ties to the pedophile financier.
Bill Gates and Boris Nikolic in 2012. /Paul Morigi/Getty Images
The Antonova memo is part of a trove of material released under the Epstein Documents Transparency Act, which forced the Justice Department to dump millions of pages of Epstein-related documents, including emails, photos and videos.
Lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee also released their own cache of Epstein communications while condemning the Justice Department for withholding much of the documents.
This is the latest lurid accusation against Gates in the dossier. On Monday, The Daily Beast reported a draft of a 2013 email in which Epstein appeared to craft a message for Nikolic accusing Gates of contracting an STI after “having sex with a Russian girl” and conspiring to inject his then-wife, Melinda French Gates, with antibiotics without her knowledge.
A spokesman for Gates called the claims “absolutely ridiculous and completely false.” French Gates later said the document’s dropping brought back “very, very painful” memories of their marriage.
Bill Gates and Melinda France Gates divorced in 2021 after 24 years of marriage. France’s Gates said Gates’ relationship with Epstein led to the breakdown of their union. / Lou Rocco / Lou Rocco/Disney Universal Entertainment content via Getty Images
Gates has emphasized in multiple interviews that he never visited Epstein’s island or met women through him, and that the relationship, starting in 2011, included several dinners that he now regrets.
In an interview with Australia’s Channel 9 News that aired on Wednesday, Gates was questioned directly about his links to convicted sex offenders. “The focus was always that he knew a lot of very wealthy people and he said he could get them to donate to global health causes,” he said.
Trump has also faced pressure over his ties to Epstein. The president has repeatedly denied knowledge of any criminal activity by the financier. /Davidoff Studios/Getty Images
“You know, looking back, it was a dead end, and I’ve said it many times, but I’ll say it again: I was foolish to spend any time with him. I’m one of many people who regrets knowing him.”
Epstein died in a New York prison in 2019 at the age of 66 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
The Daily Beast attempted to contact Antonova for comment.