Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, disclosed details about three extramarital affairs during a closed-door testimony before a U.S. House oversight committee investigating Jeffrey Epstein, according to a transcript released on Tuesday. The testimony, which lasted several hours on June 10, also addressed Gates’s relationship with Epstein, a convicted sex offender.
Gates named two Russian women involved in the affairs: Mila Antonova, a bridge player, and Karima Nigmatulina, a nuclear physicist. He later acknowledged a third relationship with Dr. Alice Jacobs Nesselrodt, a medical entrepreneur and scientist, an affair that reportedly took place before Gates first met Epstein in 2011. The inclusion of Dr. Nesselrodt’s name came after Congress members presented Gates with an email from Epstein referencing her, a detail previously redacted in documents published by the Department of Justice.
Throughout the testimony, Gates denied any sexual misconduct and maintained that he never witnessed Epstein’s abuse but conceded it was "possible" he had unknowingly been in the presence of Epstein’s victims. He described his association with Epstein as a "mistake" and admitted to spending time with him over four years, meeting approximately a dozen times in person and conducting two Skype calls.
Gates revealed that Epstein may have contemplated blackmail after discovering his infidelities. He said Epstein made veiled references to the affairs during a 2013 meeting in Seattle, which centered on a severance package for Dr. Boris Nikolic, Gates’s employee and a mutual acquaintance of Epstein. According to Gates, Epstein’s attempts to leverage personal information were unsuccessful.
The transcript also sheds light on internal communications between Gates and Epstein. An email memo from Epstein in 2013 claimed Gates had contracted a sexually transmitted infection after encounters with the Russian women and suggested Gates asked for antibiotics to covertly provide to his then-wife, Melinda Gates. Gates denied these allegations but admitted he once confided in Dr. Nikolic about concerns over a possible sexually transmitted disease, though he emphasized he never contracted one or administered medication secretly.
Gates stated that only a few individuals knew about his affairs — himself, Dr. Nikolic, Epstein, and later his ex-wife — while therapists were presumably excluded from this knowledge. He confirmed that he was aware of Epstein’s prior sex offense conviction when they first met but pursued a limited relationship aimed at securing philanthropic donations.
Despite Epstein’s promises to facilitate significant contributions to Gates’s global health initiatives, Gates said his association with Epstein ended in 2014 after those efforts failed to materialize. Dr. Nikolic has since expressed regret for his involvement with Epstein, describing the financier as "a master manipulator" and condemning his criminal conduct.
In a related development, Western Australia police announced a review of their handling of Virginia Giuffre’s case following her death by suicide in April 2025. Giuffre, a prominent figure among Epstein’s alleged victims, had accused authorities of "systematic failures" in protecting her during her years of abuse. The police’s family violence team is examining all interactions with Giuffre in response to those concerns.