Bill Gates is just another creepy tech bro

Bill Gates has always dealt in numbers. Take 2,368, for instance – the number of times his name appears in three million pages of Jeffrey Epstein files released by the US Department of Justice earlier this year.

Or how about three? That’s the number of women that Gates has admitted to having affairs with during an hours-long interview with the US House Oversight Committee on 10 June about his friendship with Epstein, who died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial over sex crimes.

The transcripts were released this week and make for eyebrow-raising reading, not least for the three women that Gates had affairs with and has now named: bridge player Mila Antonova, nuclear physicist Karima Nigmatulina and medical entrepreneur Dr Alice Jacobs Nesselrodt. Who can guess how they’re feeling right now?

Writer Sadhbh O’Sullivan looked into her own forgotten subscriptions when she became a first-time buyer, and realised how much she was wasting on things she wasn’t using.

I’d long considered myself to be quite a reasonable spender. 

But the hidden costs across her bank accounts, like free trials that hadn’t been cancelled and memberships for abandoned services, proved otherwise.

It was full of small amounts, £2.99 here, £4.50 there. These small amounts added up.

According to a Nationwide survey almost one in five Brits don’t use every platform they pay for.

The bank suggests they could save as much as £400 a year by ditching them. 

National Trading Standards’ 2025 research found 4.7 million people were paying for subscriptions they didn’t know they’d signed up for.

In 2024, a government report found unused and unwanted subscriptions cost consumers up to £1.6bn a year.

Hunt them down

Banking apps usually list your ‘subscriptions’ separately from direct debits and standing orders so you can easily spot what you’re shelling out on.

Check everything

You can be debited through credit cards, E-payment services, your mobile phone bill, Apple Pay or Google Pay.

Don’t vow to use a subscription you’re not going to, even if you
have good intentions.

Many businesses have changed from monthly to annual payments so look further back.

Make sure to track any subscriptions you have kept so you can cancel them, if need be, in future.

But staff say many people treat their shops like a tip.

Here they share the most useful donations they get, and the
ones that drive them mad.

The quality of donations over the last year has diminished.

Claire Stockman, head of retail for St
Luke’s Hospice [pictured], says many donations include used items from fast fashion like Boohoo and Primark, which they cannot sell for more than £2, if at all.

of what comes into St Luke’s Hospice is unsellable, Stockman says.

She adds its soiled, damaged beyond
repair or smelly.

Harriet, a volunteer at Crisis in Dalston,
says people bring in clothes that are dirty and stained – things that they cannot sell
on Vinted.

She also sees dirty kitchenware and technology that no longer works.

There was a box donated after someone’s family had passed and in it were all these medals. I researched them and the whole collection ended up going for £2,340…

A good donation is anything new with tags on, anything that hasn’t been opened, or higher quality items.

Items that have been well looked after are more likely to sell and generate a better price for charity too.

Harriet adds that knick-knacks and wine glasses are surprise hits in her branch.

Here, psychologists, career consultants and sleep experts give their best advice on how
to beat the gloom that the
work week is looming…

Pave the way on Friday

Psychologist Maria-Teresa Daher-Cusack says to wrap up tasks and not to leave big or difficult things for Monday. And write a to-do list for the next week so you know what to expect when you return after the weekend.

Get outside early

Doctor Naheed Ali says getting out on a Sunday morning – not sleeping late – helps regulate the circadian rhythm that can become skewed over the weekend.

On Sunday spend time away from technology to allow yourself a personal reset away from doom scrolling.

Put yourself in the best position to rest by avoiding large meals, screens and caffeine.

If possible don’t stack your Mondays with high-pressure tasks.

Don’t just save joyful things for the weekend. On lunch breaks, try to do something you enjoy.

If the Sunday scaries are constant, listen to them. If every Sunday fills you with dread and nothing seems to quell it it’s worth asking if it’s the job, the culture or the career itself. No one should spend half their weekend bracing for impact… ” says Victoria McLean

But no country’s energy system is 100 per cent secure and large-scale blackouts, although rare, are possible.

Here’s how to prepare, and what could happen, if we do have a blackout.

If the UK’s power went down tomorrow, these are the ways it is likely to impact you first.

For EV owners that are already on the road, Professor Keith Bell, who works in electricity planning, recommends that those with an EV with reasonable charge use it as a generator, like your own store of electricity.

In the case of the power system going down, petrol isn’t a totally safe option as queues at petrol stations could be huge and places are likely to run out of fuel.

The longer the power takes to return the worse things are likely to get. In 2021 Storm Arwen physically damaged power lines across the UK.

During the 1977 New York blackout, which lasted 25 hours, there was civil unrest, resulting in widespread looting and arson, although intense heatwaves are thought to have exacerbated the situation.

To get updates during a power cut – a car radio can be used, but in severe weather it might be safer to stay inside.

A minimum of 2.5-3 litres of drinking water per person per day is recommended.

The Government recommends opting for torches over candles, for safety reasons.

Using screens in a way that benefits your child’s development is key and balancing educational content and entertainment with offline activities ensures a well-rounded routine.

For younger children, try scavenger hunts, garden games and nature walks. For older ones, hikes
and biking trips.

Designated screen-free times helps children develop a routine that balances screen use with other activities.

It’s an excellent way
to bond and develop critical thinking skills.

Getting creative, through drawing, painting or model construction, enhances cognitive skills and offers an alternative to screens.

Arrange playdates or group activities with friends, or for older kids try an overnight camping trip in the garden.

Showing that you value offline time encourages your children to do the same.

Implement a reward system where screen time is earned through positive behaviour. 

Discuss the importance of balancing screen time with your children so they understand the reasons behind the rules.

Some studies suggest so.

These are the eight brain-boosting foods registered dietitian Fareeha Jay
recommends people consume as part of a weekly diet…

They contain several nutrients thought to support brain health, including choline, vitamin B12 and iodine.

Caffeine can reduce inflammation and
slow the degeneration
of brain cells.

It’s packed with antioxidants and high in vitamin K, which is essentially for healthy brain cells.

Your brain uses Omega-3s to build brain and nerve cells – so a diet rich in them may slow age-related mental decline.

These improve heart health markers, which is linked to a lower risk of neurological disorders.

They contain compounds which have been shown to improve blood flow to the brain, cognitive function, and memory.

There’s this assumption about being put out to pasture… but now that we’re living and working longer, we have to challenge myths around ageing and remember that over-50s are a crucial part of the workforce…

Yet more than a third of those between 50 and 69 believe that their age puts them at a disadvantage when they apply for jobs. 

The Age Without Limits study from 2024 shows that 37 per cent of workers between 51 to 70 felt badly treated in work because of their age.

We need the same level of career planning in
our fifties as our twenties. It’s possible to reinvent yourself again.

It’s nonsense that older people can’t pick up how to use new tech.

Do you need a pay rise? Could you trade some of that money you earn, to work a bit less, and do more things you enjoy?

Become full-time childcare

Grandparenting on the horizon? If you don’t want to do childcare, have the conversation early – even before a child becomes pregnant – that you plan to continue working and love your job.

Accept redundancy too quickly

It’s going to be so much harder to get back into work if you don’t have a plan before you take that leap.

Everybody thinks early retirement is the dream but the reality can be different. There can be loneliness, lack of purpose and a sense of invisibility. 

Boneless chicken thighs are all meat and a much tastier product.

If you plan every meal all week, there’s no leeway for necessary last-minute changes of plan (or leftovers).

There are so many products that children want to fill the trolley with – all kinds of exciting eye candy. It’s cheaper to go alone.

Consider a vegetable box delivery

Having a Riverford box delivery helps Morris avoid impulse buys and go to the shops
less – even though the box is pricey. “It is expensive, but of great quality and organic”.

Track your spending

It doesn’t need to be an elaborate spreadsheet but without some kind of metric, it’s impossible to spot where you
can or must make cutbacks.

You can save plenty
over a year by never buying branded products at full price.

Do a quick cupboard stocktake. You might find you already have three jars of one thing.

Packing fruit, biscuits, and nuts etc into a Tupperware to take out is more cost effective than buying tiny packaged portions.

“Faking” a takeaway at home can sound like a cheaper option, but if it’s something you don’t usually cook – that needs new ingredients – it could work out pricier.

Returning a few things to the shelves that you won’t need in the near future can save you a healthy amount.

Every time you make do with what’s at home,
you save big.

Try a week or a month of shopping local,
and you might be surprised at the results,
in terms of cost and other benefits like supporting local businesses, and
avoiding car journeys and traffic.

Of course, being included in the Epstein files is no indication of criminality and he hasn’t been accused of any. But, undeniably, the long-held image of Gates as a happy, family man who just happens to possess unimaginable wealth (currently about $105bn) has shattered.

The cracks started to show in 2019, when details of his association with Epstein leaked out. It was allegedly the final straw for his wife of 27 years and mother of their three children, Melinda French Gates, who hired lawyers. The couple divorced in 2021 amid allegations of infidelity – official line, “We no longer believe we can grow together.”

“I am so happy to be away from all the muck that was there,” French said in an interview, after the Epstein files were released this year. “It’s personally hard whenever those details come up because [it] brings back memories of some very, very painful times in my marriage.”

That “muck” has kept on coming. Take the draft email that Epstein seemingly sent to himself in which he accuses Gates of contracting a sexually transmitted infection: “To add insult to injury,” it read, “you then subsequently with tears in your eyes, implore me to please delete the emails regarding your std, your request that I provide you with antibiotics that you can surreptitiously give to Melinda, and the description of your penis.”

It’s a long way from the days of the Microsoft power couple who gave away $50bn together via their foundation and sat side-by-side in matching glass offices, with matching desks.

Gates has strongly denied giving his ex-wife medication – although he confessed to having “some concern about whether I had an STD” – and claimed to Congress that the email was evidence the paedophile financier was planning to blackmail him. The files also contain multiple photographs of the two men smiling side by side.

“I never went to his island, his ranch, or his Florida home. I have never victimised anyone,” he told the committee. “While he may have sought to foster a personal relationship, I was never interested in that and never reciprocated.”

When he was challenged on having associated with Epstein between 2011 and 2014, despite knowing of his 2008 criminal conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor, Gates replied: “I have regret that I didn’t factor that in to a greater degree.”

How could anyone be so stupid? Unthinking? Selfish? It seems especially odd from a man who has spent decades cultivating the image of the shy, awkward genius who quit Harvard to co-found Microsoft in 1975 and became the youngest US billionaire aged 31, receiving an honorary knighthood from the late Queen Elizabeth II and a Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama.

Since 2000, he has pledged to eradicate infectious diseases, poverty and, of course, his own wealth – which he said, in a statement last year, that he would give away over the next two decades “to the cause of saving and improving lives around the world” before closing the foundation for good.

So, should we be surprised at this latest turn of events? That a man like Bill Gates had affairs? According to his biographer Tim Schwab, author of The Bill Gates Problem: Reckoning with the Myth of the Good Billionaire, Gates has a history of reinventing himself in the public eye.

And, it is now easy to forget that Gates went through a period of extreme turbulence. In 1998, he was taken to court by the federal government in a high-profile antitrust case, which found Microsoft was monopolising the personal computer market (they settled). The Gates name became a byword for Machiavellian behaviour – he was even mocked on The Simpsons, and that’s when you know you’re disliked.

In 2011, he was accused of cheating his childhood friend and Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen, out of his fair share at a time when Allen had blood cancer. This was detailed in Allen’s 2011 memoir Idea Man and never publicly disputed by Gates.

Cue reinvention. “Suddenly, Bill Gates was the most generous philanthropist on earth,” writes Schwab in his book. It’s why, he tells me, we shouldn’t be surprised by the latest revelations. “Gates has done a great job over the last few decades of marketing himself first as the boy genius and then the avuncular humanitarian,” he says. “But if you go back in his history, he’s always been kind of a bad boy – racing fast cars, a very combative management style, Alpha male energy.

“We forget that he was accused of misconduct towards female employees [which he has denied] and he pursued Melinda when she was his subordinate at Microsoft. So, I’m not surprised to learn about extramarital affairs at all.”

As for the association with Epstein, Schwab refers to the famous Maya Angelou quote: “When someone shows you who they are, believe them.”

“I think it tells us that he is, in reality, a very different person than he’s led us to believe. Bill Gates today remains the exact same kind of cunning and calculating business-driven, hyper-competitive guy who ran Microsoft,” he says. “People have long been lulled into this misleading narrative that there are two different Bill Gates – the cold-hearted monopolist and the kind-hearted, soft-spoken humanitarian. There are not two different Bill Gates.”

As for whether he’ll come through this unscathed? After all, Gates has already had a second act, and we don’t tend to like giving people third chances. Not to mention that, during previous hiccups, he had Melinda by his side (he’s now rumoured to be in a relationship with philanthropist and former tech executive Paula Hurd).

“I think what we’re seeing right now is a real test of his political mettle, of his political power, of how much influence he still has and to what extent his reputation is so hurt that he’s not going to be able to recover from it,” says Schwab.

In the court of public opinion, Schwab isn’t convinced this is the final curtain for Gates. “I wouldn’t underestimate him. He’s weathered so many scandals over the years without serious consequences that it’s certainly possible that this scandal can go away without material consequences for him,” he says. “I’m just hoping that this opens the door to a wholesale reappraisal of billionaire philanthropy – does it have too much power, is it too big? One thing is for sure, it’s a big and interesting moment in Bill Gates’s fascinating career.”