Epstein Alleged Billionaire Bill Gates Left Ex Mistress Penniless and Sleeping on a Sofa

The billionaire’s famous philanthropy reportedly did not extend to his extramarital affairs.

Bill Gates is facing intense scrutiny for his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein after a portion of files released by the Department of Justice on January 30. In one 2017 email, Epstein alleged that Gates let his Russian ex-mistress “break down” and sleep on a friend’s couch—and that if her perilous financial situation became public, Donald Trump would make the front pages.

Gates, 70—who is worth an estimated $104 billion, making him one of the 20 richest people in the world—has been one of the most high-profile victims of the ongoing release of the Epstein files.

In an email, sent from Epstein’s personal Gmail account to Gates’ adviser Boris Nikolic about the Microsoft founder, Epstein wrote in July 2017 that Gates’ “former bridge girl”—who appears to be Mila Antonova, a bridge player nearly 30 years Gates’ junior—was “broke” and “had little money.”

Epstein claimed she was “living on a friend’s couch,” and “really needed the money,” before adding: “I sent her some.”

In the typo-condemned email, the child sex offender then mocked Nikolic’s “friend account” as “nuts,” saying “Gates’ ex-girlfriend… can’t afford air con, , can’t affrod (sic) to travel to the bridge.”

Epstein said, “The richest man in the world is so cheap, his daughter and toy that used to be a bridge, he lives on a friends couch,” and added: “This story would take the edge off the facade.”

At the time Epstein’s email was sent, Trump was engulfed in fury over the Trump Tower Russia meeting, after Donald Trump Jr. released emails showing he had received “very high-level and sensitive information” from a Kremlin-linked lawyer about Hillary Clinton.

The episode dominated cable news and front pages while Robert Mueller examined whether the meeting violated campaign finance or conspiracy laws, although prosecutors ultimately did not file charges about the meeting.

Epstein’s email appears 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 Journal, Epstein later met Antonova in 2013 after Nikolic introduced them and agreed to pay for her software coding course.

Four years later, in 2017, Epstein emailed Gates to request reimbursement, in a move widely interpreted as an attempt to gain influence over one of the world’s richest men, according to the Journal. The Daily Telegraph later reported in 2023 that Antonova was an associate of “notorious” Kremlin spy Anna Chapman.

Gates said his meetings with Epstein were only about philanthropy and that they were “a big mistake.” A spokesman stressed 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 on Antonova’s teaching.

“Mr. Gates met with Epstein only for philanthropic purposes. After repeatedly failing to draw Mr. Gates beyond these issues, Epstein tried unsuccessfully to exploit a past relationship to threaten Mr. Gates,” a spokesman for Gates told the Daily Beast.

Antonova previously told the Journal that she didn’t know who Epstein was when they met and believed he was simply a wealthy businessman offering to help her bridge teaching startup. She said that he later let her stay for a short time in a New York apartment, but that they barely interacted, and that she is now “disgusted” by what she has learned about him.

Nikolic, a physician-investor who served as Gates’ chief science adviser between 2009 and 2014, said he first met Epstein in his official capacity for Gates, now regrets the contact, and denies having business ties to the pedophile financier.

The Antonova memo is part of a flood of material released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which forced the Justice Department to release millions of pages of documents related to Epstein, including emails, photos and videos.

Lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee also posted their own cache of Epstein communications, blasting the DOJ for withholding large portions of the files.

It’s the latest lurid allegation to hit Gates from the files. On Monday, the Daily Beast reported on draft emails from 2013 in which Epstein appeared to write a message for Nikolic, accused Gates of catching a sexually transmitted infection after “sex with Russian girls” and planned to slip antibiotics to his then-wife, Melinda French Gates, without her knowledge.

Gates’ spokesman called the allegations “absolutely absurd and completely false.” French Gates later said the document’s release brought back “very, very painful” memories of their marriage.

Gates has insisted in several interviews that he never visited Epstein’s island, never met women through him, and that the relationship consisted of a small number of meals from 2011 onwards which he now regrets.

In an interview with Australia’s 9 News that aired on Wednesday, Gates was pressed directly about his links to the sex offender. He said: “The emphasis was always, he knew a lot of very rich people, and he was saying, he could get them to give money to global health.

“You know, in retrospect, that it was an unbeaten path, and I’ve said it many times, but I’ll say it again: I was a fool who spent time with him. I was one of many people who regret that they ever knew him.”

Epstein, who died in a New York prison in 2019 at the age of 66 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges, spent his final years trying to monetize his connections to billionaires and world leaders—and, as this latest email shows, often cheating on them privately.

The Daily Beast attempted to contact Antonova for comment.