In a September 2021 interview with PBS NewsHour’s Judy Woodruff, Bill Gates was pressed about his meetings with Jeffrey Epstein, which had begun after Epstein was already a convicted sex offender. Gates acknowledged that he had met with Epstein multiple times, including dinners, and said he had done so because Epstein claimed he could help bring wealthy donors into global-health philanthropy. Gates called those meetings a mistake, said they produced nothing of value and maintained that he eventually cut off contact. When Woodruff noted that the meetings had continued over a period of years, Gates continued to frame the relationship as a failed philanthropic effort rather than anything personal or improper.

The interview was notable because it forced Gates to address a relationship that had become increasingly difficult to explain as more reporting emerged about the extent of his contact with Epstein. Gates expressed regret, but his answers were relatively brief and repeatedly returned to the explanation that he had been pursuing charitable funding. The central problem remained the timing: Gates had chosen to associate with Epstein years after Epstein’s 2008 Florida conviction involving a minor, making the relationship far more significant than a casual pre-scandal acquaintance. The PBS exchange therefore became one of the clearest public examples of Gates trying to contain the fallout by describing the meetings as a bad judgment call tied to philanthropy, while leaving broader questions about why the relationship continued for as long as it did.



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