Bill Gates, We Hardly Knew You

And now for something completely different.  I shall tread into the shallow waters of celebrity gossip.  Why?  Because it is there.

Billionaire techie Bill Gates has always come across as the quintessential do-gooder nerd – the antithesis of the “alpha man.” A man more devoted to books than babes.

Weeell … it turns out that Gates has a bit of Casanova in his DNA.  Who would have thought it?  It seems that the first light in the dark corners of Gates’ libido was shed when his wife of 27 years, Melinda, filed for divorce.  It was the metaphoric loose thread that began to unravel Gates’ iconic sweater.

The divorce itself was a bit of a surprise.  From the outside view, it seemed that he and Melinda had one of the more successful and stable matrimonial unions.  Ya just never know.

A Microsoft employee came forward about an affair with Gates in 2020.  He admitted to that affair, saying it ended “amicably.”  Despite Gates’ spin, the female employee sent a letter to the Company detailing the affair.

In response to the letter, the company launched an investigation that led to Gates’ departure from the Microsoft board by mutual agreement – only three months after he had been re-elected to the Board.  At the time, it was said that Gates wanted to spend more time at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  Despite his prominence as the occasionally richest man in America, the real reason for the move stayed out of the public eye.

It now appears that Gates’ boorish behavior was more than a one-time indiscretion.  Once the Pandora’s Box of salacious behavior has been opened, there are reports that the Microsoft boss frequently solicited women in both the Company and the Foundation.  One targeted lady was invited out for dinner in an email that included a request for discretion.  It read: “If this makes you uncomfortable, pretend it never happened.”

Almost ten years ago, Gates struck up a friendship with Jeffery Epstein, who was already a convicted pedophile – and, as we later learned, a continuing pimp for the rich and famous. Even that association never caused any waves in public at the time regarding Gates.  He was still seen as the civic-minded nerd he had always been.  But it was no secret to Gates’ wife, Melinda.  It was the relationship with Epstein that is said to have led her to throwing in the towel on their marriage.

Gates initially played down the relationship with Epstein – claiming it was just a casual business association based on a common interest in charitable donations.  The credibility of that statement was strained when it was revealed that Gates had been to Epstein’s home “many times” and took rides on  Epstein’s plane, Pedophile One.  (Yes, I made up the name of the plane.)  But one has to wonder why Gates was not using his own plane.

Then came an odd twist to the Epstein/Gates friendship.  People close to Gates said that the billionaire philanthropist saw Epstein as his “ticket to the Nobel Prize.”  Gates believed that Epstein’s international friendships with powerful people would help secure the one prize Gates coveted above all.

Gates denied assertions that he was lobbying for the Prize through Epstein or anyone else.  That denial suffers some credibility since he and Epstein had a meeting with then-Norwegian Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjørn Jagland.

Gates’ denial that he was using Epstein to secure a Nobel Prize may not have been the billionaire’s best move.  With that explanation out of the way, it leaves the question: Just what was Gates’ reason for hanging around with Epstein?

If past scandals provide a prescient look into the future, this will not be the end of the Gates story.  There is likely to be a lot more wool in Gates’ sweater to become unraveled.

So, there ‘tis.