View source for Bill Gates apos; Checkered Love Life: Russian Bridge Player To Work Affair

' checkered love life is in the spotlight yet again after it emerged he had an affair with a Russian bridge player - and  tried to 'extort' him over the relationship.<br>The Microsoft founder's  followed an 'inappropriate' affair with a staffer in 2000 and claims he repeatedly hit on women at the company.<br>Intermixed with Gates' extramarital liaisons is scrutiny around his relationship with Epstein, the pedophile financier who took his own life in 2019 while jailed on charges of sex trafficking minors.<br><br>Gates insists the pair never had 'any business relationship or friendship' and their meetings were solely to discuss philanthropic ventures.<br>Gates, 67,  French Gates, 58, in 2021, after 27 years of marriage, amid reports about his links to Epstein. The pair, who met while Gates was technically Melinda's boss, have three children together.<br>Gates is now in a relationship with former tech executive Paula Hurd, 60, who is the widow of former Oracle co-CEO.<br>Here, DailyMail.com looks back at some of the twists and  [https://www.rockethomes.com/ mporn] turns in Gates' colorful - and at time controversial - love life. <br>         Bill Gates had an affair with Russian bridge player Mila Antonova in around 2010 and Jeffrey Epstein tried to extort him over the relationship.<br><br>The revelations add to a list of controversies in Gates' love life<br>         Gates divorced his wife of 27 years, Melinda French Gates, in 2021.<br><br>The couple, pictured together with their three children, split amid scrutiny of Gates' relationship with Epstein<br>         Gates, pictured in 1985, also had an 'inappropriate' relationship with a staffer at Microsoft and has faced claims he would hit on female workers at the company that made him a billionaire<br>The Russian bridge player...<br><br>and Epstein's 'extortion' attemptThe revelation about Gates' affair with Mila Antonova - and Eptein's attempts to use it against the Microsoft billionaire - .<br>Gates, a self-confessed bridge buff, met Antonova in around 2010, when she was in her 20s and he was around three decades her senior.<br>The couple played bridge together as Antonova held ambitions of launching an online bridge school.<br><br>She was introduced to Epstein three years later in 2013 by Gates' scientific advisor, Boris Nikolic. Antonova sought Epstein's financial backing for the bridge project but he did not invest.<br>Antonova said in 2010 that she 'didn't beat' Gates at bridge but 'tried to kick him with my leg'.<br>While the extent of their affair isn't clear, Gates' spokeswoman has acknowledged that 'Epstein tried unsuccessfully to leverage a past relationship to threaten Mr. Gates'.<br>A single picture of Gates with Antonova has surfaced amid reports of their relationship.<br>Gates, dressed typically casual in a blue jacket and polo shirt, has an arm the glamorous young Russian, who's wearing a dress and her hair held up in a band.<br>         Mila Antonova, who had an affair with Gates in around 2010, showed a picture of them together during a presentation about her passion for bridge<br>         <br>Gates, pictured at a bridge tournament in 2006, is a life-long lover of the game<br>         Gates at Jeffrey Epstein's Manhattan mansion in 2011, from left: Jes Staley, then a JPMorgan executive; former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers; Epstein; Gates; and Boris Nikolic, who was the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's science adviser<br>Epstein reportedly learned of the affair and alluded to it in an email to Gates in 2017 - hinting that he could expose it.<br><br>Epstein wanted Gates to invest in a multi-billion dollar charitable fund and sent the email as he attempted to secure his backing.<br>Epstein had paid for Antonova to attend coding school and the email to Gates asked for the money - an immaterial amount to the two tycoons - to be reimbursed.<br>A spokeswoman for Gates said the money was never paid and added: 'Mr.<br><br>Gates never had any financial dealings with Epstein. As Bill has said before, it was a mistake to have ever met him.<br>'Mr. Gates met with Epstein solely for philanthropic purposes. Having failed repeatedly to draw Mr. Gates beyond these matters, Epstein tried unsuccessfully to leverage a past relationship to threaten Mr.<br><br>Gates.'<br>Antonova said: 'I had no idea that [Epstein] was a criminal or had any ulterior motive. I just thought he was a successful businessman and wanted to help. I am disgusted with Epstein and what he did.'<br>She said 'nothing was exchanged' with Epstein and that when she asked why he funded her education, 'he said something like, he was wealthy and wanted to help people when he could'.<br>       Gates, pictured in 2000, had an 'inappropriate' relationship with a female employee that year which came to light two decades later when she reported it to the Microsoft board<br>Affair with Microsoft staffer in 2000 Gates'  came to light two decades later - after the woman reported it to the company's board and an investigation was launched.<br>Gates had stepped down as CEO in 2000 but remained a member of the board.<br><br>He quit the board suddenly in 2020 while the investigation into the affair, which was launched in 2019, was still underway.<br>His spokeswoman confirmed the affair but said his departure wasn't linked to it.<br>The woman involved in the 'intimate relationship' has never been identified.<br>It emerged just weeks after Bill and Melinda Gates announced in May 2021 that they were to divorce. <br>Microsoft spokesman Frank Shaw said at the time: 'Microsoft received a concern in the latter half of 2019 that Bill Gates sought to initiate an intimate relationship with a company employee in the year 2000.<br>'A committee of the Board reviewed the concern, aided by an outside law firm to conduct a thorough investigation. Throughout the investigation, Microsoft provided extensive support to the employee who raised the concern.'<br>A spokeswoman for Gates said 'there was an affair almost 20 years ago which ended amicably'. <br>Microsoft recruited a law firm to review its sexual harassment policy in January 2022 and cited the investigation into Gates' affair in its announcement of the review.<br>         Gates with wife Melinda (third from right) and students in 2000 at a scholarship presentation by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation<br>         Gates, pictured in 2008, had an affair with a Microsoft employee in 2000 and allegedly hit on other workers at the company.<br><br>He was reportedly 'known for making clumsy approaches to women in and out of the office'<br>Pursuit of other female Microsoft employeesFollowing news that Gates would divorce Melinda, a series of news reports claimed he'd pursued women at Microsoft on several occasions.<br>On one occasion in 2006, while the company's chairman, he emailed an employee after she gave a presentation and asked her out to dinner.<br>'If this makes you uncomfortable, pretend it never happened,' he wrote in the email.<br>Sources told The , which reported the email, that the woman felt uncomfortable about the advance and reportedly 'decided to pretend it never happened'.<br>The same report said he invited a female employee of the Gates Foundation to dinner a couple of years later.<br><br>During a cocktail part in New York, he's said to have asked: 'I want to see you. Will you have dinner with me?'<br>She said she laughed to avoid responding.<br>The Times said Gates was 'known for making clumsy approaches to women in and out of the office' and that it 'fueled widespread chatter among employees about his personal life'.<br>Divorce from Melinda in 2021The Gateses made the shock announcement of their split in May 2021 and the divorce was .<br>The initially announcement was followed by a flurry of reports about Gates' approaches to employees at Microsoft, details of his 2000 affair and scrutiny of his relationship with Epstein.<br>Melinda has since detailed the 'unbelievably painful' split but said she 'just couldn't stay in that marriage anymore'.<br>But she has insisted Gates' affair had nothing to do with the divorce.<br>         Bill and Melinda Gates in 2018, three years before they announced their split<br>         The pair have three children together - Jennifer, 27, Rory, 23, and Phoebe, 20<br>'I certainly believe in forgiveness, so I thought we had worked through some of that,' she said.<br>'I gave every single piece of myself to this marriage.<br><br>If you liked this information and you would like to receive more details concerning [https://www.rockethomes.com/ mf hot mom] kindly browse through our page. I was committed from the day we got engaged to the day I got out of it.<br>'It wasn't one moment or one specific thing that happened. There just came a point in time where there was enough there that I realized it just wasn't healthy, and I couldn't trust what we had.'<br>The pair have three children together - Jennifer, 27, Rory, 23, and Phoebe, 20.<br>They also founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation together in 2000, and even after going their separate ways, the former couple continued to run the foundation together - which Melinda said helped her get through the divorce.<br>         Bill Gates, 67, has found a love match with fellow tennis buff and former tech exec Paula Hurd, 60.<br><br>'They're inseparable,' a friend told DailyMail.com in February. The look of love was obvious at the WTA semifinal match  in Indian Wells, California last March<br>         Bill and Paula were most recently seen sitting front row at the Men's Singles Final at the Australian Open in Melbourne during their trip Down Under last month <br>              Paula is the widow of former Oracle co-CEO Mark Hurd (left) who died in 2019 after a reported battle with cancer.<br><br>Bill and Melinda divorced in 2021 after 27 years of marriage <br> and the couple were said to be 'inseparable'.<br>Once a tech executive herself, Hurd is now an event planner and organizer, and philanthropist.<br>A friend of the couple said: 'They've been together over a year and she's always described as a "mystery woman," but it's no mystery to their inner circle that they're in a romantic relationship.'<br>