'I'm not a robot': Bill Gates reveals he would like to find love again following divorce from wife Melinda - weeks after he was spotted with mystery brunette

• e-mail

Billionaire Bill Gates has revealed he would like to find love again, two years after divorcing his wife Melinda and weeks after he was spotted with a mystery woman.

Gates, 67, was speaking in a wide-ranging interview in which he also addressed becoming the target of Covid-19 conspiracy theories, played down his relationship with Jeffery Epstein and gave his thoughts on Donald Trump running for re-election.

Currently considered the world's sixth richest man with a net worth of $106billion (behind fellow US entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos), Gates divorced Melinda after 27 years of marriage in 2021.

Reports have since suggested that his ties to late sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein were among Melinda's concerns in the divorce proceedings.

Asked during the interview with the BBC during a visit to Kenya whether he would like to find love again, he answered: 'Sure, I'm not a robot.'

Billionaire Bill Gates has revealed he would like to find love again, nearly two years after divorcing his wife Melinda. Pictured: The pair pose for a photograph in 2019

His comment came after Gates was spotted in Australia with a mystery woman, strolling through Sydney and taking in the sights. It is not known who she is or what the nature of their relationship is.

Gates was asked whether he considered himself frugal and responded to accusations of hypocrisy over his use of a private jet while being a climate activist.

'I don't fly commercial coach class, and I fly on a private plane – so that is extremely extravagant,' he told BBC interviewer Amol Rajan. 'I wouldn't travel the world as much as I do, and I do more than offset all those emissions by things like paying for direct air capture to get done – that's over $9million a year.'

He also said he doesn't have a 'gigantic closet' and doesn't wear jewellery.

'When I'm unwrapping a present, I don't take the wrapping and fold it up and use it again. My grandmother never threw a paper bag in her life or any string on a package. So by her standards, I'm crazy,' he admitted.

The philanthropist and co-founder of Microsoft has given tens of billions of dollars to charitable causes, and through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation targets the eradication of infectious diseases such as polio and malaria.

Asked how close his foundation, working with the World Health Organisation, is to eradicating polio, he said a credible plan was in place to do so in four years.

'We only have a few hundred cases per-year. And so, it's magic if we can get to zero. We think we have a very credible plan to get there in four years, but it's been much harder than we expected,' Gates said.

His comment came after Gates was spotted in Australia with a mystery woman (pictured on January 23), strolling through Sydney and taking in the sights. It is not known who he was spotted with, or the nature of their relationship

'So it will be magic getting to zero, because then not only don't you have any kids dying or being paralyzed – and it was over 200,000 a year when this started – but you won't have to vaccinate. It's just gone. All that cost, prevention, treatment, completely never happens again.'

His work has made him the target of conspiracy theories, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic, which he said he 'did not expect'.

'During the pandemic, there were tens of millions of messages that I intentionally caused it, or I'm tracking people. It's true I'm involved with vaccines, but I'm involved with vaccines to save lives.

'These messages sort of inverted that. I guess people are looking for the "boogeyman" behind the curtain, the over-simplistic explanation. Malevolence is a lot easier to understand than biology,' he told the BBC.

Gates said unlike his fellow tech entrepreneurs on the Forbes rich list, he does not want to go to Mars, and would rather pay for vaccines.

'It's actually quite expensive to go to Mars. You can buy measles vaccines and save lives for $1,000 (£814) per life saved,' he told Rajan.

The billionaire said he had not experienced the level of political polarisation now seen in the United States in his lifetime.

'It scares me,' he said. 'I don't blame digital media for all of that, but it does seem to magnify it. Literally, there's people elected who believe in these QAnon conspiracy theories. So I hope that smart young people can take and shape these digital forms to be more constructive and get rid of the negative things.

'The next generation has always given some great breakthroughs and some challenges that come with those breakthroughs. And I don't think my generation took care of the downside of digital media.'

He said that having met former president Donald Trump through his foundation he did not 'understand him', adding: 'I hope we can move on to new Republican candidates who are more forward looking, more believing in election integrity.'

Gates was also questioned about his ties to Epstein, who was found hanged in his cell in 2019 while awaiting a sex-trafficking trial. Like many other philanthropists, Gates met the financier. Their relationship is reported to have started in 2011 - after Epstein's conviction of procuring a child for proposition.

Bill and Melinda visited Epstein's house in 2013, despite Melinda's discomfort.

Currently considered the world's sixth richest man with a net worth of $106billion (behind fellow US entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos), Gates divorced Melinda after 27 years of marriage. Pictured: Melinda Gates and Bill Gates speak on stage during the Robin Hood Foundation benefit at the Jacob Javits Center in New York on May 14, 2018

It is not clear how deep their friendship was, but Gates has generally played down his links to Epstein, previously saying: 'I met him. I didn't have any business relationship or friendship with him.'

In the BBC interview, he said: 'It's tough. Everyone you meet, and you say, "OK, I'll go to dinner". How careful should you be? I'm certainly more careful now than back when I did that. That's a long time ago.'

Asked if he had changed his behavior since, he said: 'I'll do a little more due diligence. I may make a mistake again, you know, I'm out in the world and I'm not trying to be a recluse.'

The interview in Kenya came after Gates stumbled over his words when he was grilled over his links to Epstein by another reporter while in Australia.

Appearing on Australian TV, host Sarah Ferguson put it to Gates: 'One of the issues that has dogged you is your relationship to Epstein.

'Do you regret the relationship that you maintained with him against Melinda's advice and wishes?'

Taken aback, Gates replied: 'You're going way back... but I will say for the over a hundredth time that, yeah, I shouldn't have had dinners with him.'

Ferguson continued to push the topic, saying: 'Epstein had a way of sexually compromising people.

'Is that what Melinda was warning you about?'

Gates stumbled a bit in his response.

'No. I mean, uh ... no... I had dinner with him, and that's all.'

'And that you regret the acquittance?'

'That I had dinner with him, yes.'

Ferguson then asked if he regretted any link between Epstein and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - the vehicle through which he carries out his philanthropic efforts.

'There never was any relationship of any kind,' he responded.

The pair's meetings seem to have fizzled out by 2014, with the New York Times noting the financier had complained to friends by that point that Gates had stopped speaking to him.

Epstein was arrested in July 2019 on US federal charges of sex-trafficking minors in Florida and New York, but committed suicide in his cell a month later before the case could go before a court.