Jeffrey Epstein threatened to blackmail Bill Gates with the knowledge of his affair with a Russian bridge player. He threatened this after coercing Gates to participate in a multi-billion dollar charity fund, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Bill Gates met the bridge player when she was in her 20s around 2010. Jeffrey Epstein, on the other hand, met her three years later in 2013 when she was in the early stages of trying to fund an online bridge tutorial platform. Epstein then payed for her attendance to a software programming boot camp, per Forbes.

The affair lasted for many years between the Microsoft creator and the woman. And when it ended in 2017, Epstein asked Gates to reimburse him for the course she took all those years earlier in an email. The email reportedly read like a threat to reveal their affair if Gates didn't follow through or ended his association with Epstein. At the time of the email, Epstein had already been a convicted sex offender.

This email came around the time that Epstein was trying to establish a charitable fund with JPMorgan Chase, which was turning out to be unsuccessful. Epstein pursued Gates for years to participate in the fund. However, Gates’ spokesperson said he didn't reimburse Epstein for the course. They also said he didn't have “any financial dealings” with the sex offender, saying that Gates believed it was a mistake “to have ever met him.”

Melinda French Gates, Gates' ex-wife, agreed that the meetings were a mistake. In an interview discussing the couple’s divorce, French Gates said she “did not like that [Gates] had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein.” French Gates also shared that she met Epstein once and thought him to be “abhorrent” and “evil personified.”