The couple, who have two daughters and a son together, divorced in 2021 after a 27-year marriage, partly over Gates<\/a>\u2019s connection to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>.<\/p>\n The payment was made to Pivotal Philanthropies Foundation, a non-profit organisation set up by French Gates, 61, which funds social projects aimed at women.<\/p>\n The sum was revealed in a tax filing showing the settlement\u2019s specific financial terms.<\/p>\n In 2022 French Gates cited her husband\u2019s association with Epstein, who she described as \u201cevil and abhorrent\u201d, as one of the reasons for their split<\/a>.<\/p>\n She told CBS: \u201cIt\u2019s not one thing, it was many things. But I did not like that he\u2019d had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein.\u201d<\/p>\n The couple in New York in 2018<\/p>\n LUDOVIC MARIN\/AFP\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n She said that she had also met Epstein, but that she \u201cregretted it from the second I stepped in the door\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was abhorrent,\u201d she said. \u201cHe was evil personified. I had nightmares about it afterwards.\u201d<\/p>\n French Gates resigned as co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in May 2024.<\/p>\n Gates met Epstein several times, including at his New York<\/a> townhouse on at least three occasions starting in 2011, five years after Epstein pleaded guilty to charges of procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute.<\/p>\n He appeared in at least two photos released from Epstein\u2019s estate by Democrats<\/a> on the House oversight and government reform committee.<\/p>\n![\"Bill](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/\/e2716170-75f0-490f-8aff-d5b6e51e9c46.jpg\")
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