Kathrine Frich
The private lives of the ultra-wealthy rarely stay hidden forever when federal investigators get involved.
Behind the closed doors of government hearings, decades of carefully guarded secrets can unravel in a single afternoon. For one of the world’s most famous tech pioneers, that moment of reckoning has finally arrived.
Shocking names revealed
A newly released congressional transcript has exposed the deeply chaotic personal life of billionaire Bill Gates. During a tense hearing earlier this month, the 70-year-old Microsoft founder admitted to multiple extramarital affairs.
The explosive testimony marks the first time the identities of these women have been officially confirmed. Gates confessed to a relationship with Dr. Alice Jacobs Nesselrodt, a Harvard-trained medical entrepreneur.
He also admitted to having an affair with Karima Nigmatulina, a prominent Russian nuclear scientist. He told investigators that they initially met through her work on nuclear fission and disease modeling.
The House Oversight Committee conducted the intense, un-televised questioning on June 10 to probe the billionaire’s extensive ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
A web of connections
The newly released documents show that the late, disgraced financier was well aware of the tech mogul’s secret relationships. Investigators revealed that Dr. Jacobs first made contact with Epstein in late 2009.
She later introduced Epstein to Boris Nikolic, a science advisor for the Gates Foundation who became a key link between the two men.
The committee pressed Gates on a 2013 draft email that Epstein had strangely sent to himself. Writing from Nikolic’s perspective, Epstein noted that certain topics regarding Dr. Jacobs “must remain between the two of us.”
“Well, there was a time when I had an affair with Dr. Jacobs,” Gates told Deputy Director for Oversight Peter Spectre when questioned about the message, according to the Daily Mail.
The threat of blackmail
The tech pioneer admitted to a third affair with Mila Antonova, a Russian bridge player who was 30 years his junior.
Gates revealed that he confessed to his ex-wife, Melinda, about the two relationships with the Russian women back in 2013. While she found the news incredibly distressing, the couple did not discuss divorce at the time.
The relationship with Antonova previously sparked intense speculation that Epstein was actively attempting to blackmail the billionaire.
In 2014, after Gates severed ties with the pedophile, Epstein demanded reimbursement for expenses he had paid on Antonova’s behalf. Gates ordered his top advisors to refuse the payment, telling the committee that while he was not blackmailed, it appeared Epstein’s brainstorming was heading in that direction.
Denying the accusations
The interrogation turned even more agonizing as committee members questioned Gates about deeply sensitive medical details.
The investigators read aloud another portion of Epstein’s self-sent email. The message claimed that Gates had begged to have emails deleted regarding a sexually transmitted disease, a request for hidden antibiotics, and a physical description of his anatomy.
Gates fiercely denied the embarrassing accusations under oath during the hearing.
“I never had an STD,” Gates stated to the committee, according to the Daily Mail. “I never gave medicines to anyone covertly.”
Sources: Daily Mail, House Oversight Committee
