Bill Gates named three women he had extramarital affairs with as part of an investigation into Jeffrey Epstein by US politicians.

The billionaire Microsoft co-founder told the House oversight committee that he had affairs with two Russian women, naming them as Mila Antonova, a bridge player, and Karima Nigmatulina, a nuclear physicist.

Mr Gates later admitted to a third extramarital affair with another female scientist following scrutiny from US congressmen during the hours-long testimony on June 10, a transcript published on Tuesday revealed.

The businessman, formerly the richest man in the world, has always denied ever seeing any of convicted pedophile Epstein's abuse and said it was "a mistake to spend time with him".

Questioned by US congressmen, Mr Gates again denied any sexual misconduct but agreed he "may have been in the presence of victims" unknowingly while meeting Epstein, given that some of the women and girls had been employed by the disgraced financier.

He also said it was "possible" that he had confided in a mutual friend of his and Epstein's that he feared he may have caught a sexually transmitted disease from one of the women.

Mr Gates, a philanthropist, had admitted to staff at his Gates Foundation in February that he had two affairs, later discovered by Epstein, but did not provide further details.

In his closed-door testimony delivered to the US Congress, he suggested that Epstein "contemplated blackmailing me" after learning of his unfaithfulness with the two Russian women.

He also alleged that he had had an affair with Dr Alice Jacobs Nesselrodt, a medical entrepreneur, before he met Epstein in 2011.

Mr Gates appeared surprised to learn that Epstein was aware of the affair, after previously telling Congress that the paedophile only had knowledge of "the two that we've discussed".

Congressmen then showed him an email that Epstein had sent himself in July 2013, mentioning Dr Nesselrodt in relation to Mr Gates, according to the transcript. 

Her name had previously been redacted in published versions of the email shared by the US justice department.

Asked about the significance of the message, Mr Gates said: "Well, there was a time when I had an affair with Dr Jacobs [Nesselrodt]. So that may fit that category."

Mr Gates, who testified to Congress voluntarily, insisted that while Epstein did not successfully blackmail him about the affairs, "it looks like Mr Epstein's brainstorming was going in that direction".

His comments followed awkward revelations about his close relationship with the sex offender, disclosed in the Epstein files, which the US justice department began publishing in December last year.

Credit: 9News

They showed that Epstein had claimed in a memo to himself in 2013 that Mr Gates caught an STD after sleeping with "Russian girls", and that the Microsoft founder had asked for antibiotics to "surreptitiously give" to his then-wife, Melinda.

Mr Gates repeatedly denied the claims but admitted in the closed-door interview that at one point he did have fears that he may have caught an infection through one of his sexual dalliances.

He said that while his anxieties proved unfounded and he never caught a sexual infection, it was "possible I said something" to Dr Boris Nikolic, his employee and a mutual friend of Epstein's, about his worries over an STD.

"I never had an STD ... I've said I may have indicated some concern about whether I had an STD; I don't recall that. But I never had an STD. I never gave medicines to anyone covertly," Mr Gates said.

Mr Gates said he estimated that he met Epstein, who died in prison in 2019, "like 12 to 14 times, plus two Skype calls in total over the four-year period".

He revealed that while the meetings were mostly to discuss philanthropy, he had a tête-à-tête with Epstein at his Gates Ventures office in Seattle in August 2013 after the sex offender flew there to discuss a severance package for Dr Nikolic.

Mr Gates claimed that Epstein made "veiled references" to the affairs during the showdown, during which the sex offender was acting on behalf of Dr Nikolic.

"There was the veiled type of language, hey, we should all want to be friends. And as I've said, I took that on very explicitly and said, 'look, if you think you're going to get more money out of this, it's not going to happen, and if that means you go out and talk to people about things, I will just bear the pain of that and deal with it'," he told Congress.

Emails that Epstein sent himself claimed that Dr Nikolic's exit from Mr Gates's company was fuelled in part by his knowledge of a "severe marital dispute" between the Microsoft co-founder and his then-wife.

Mr Gates denied this but admitted that Dr Nikolic learned of the affairs after asking to use him as an alibi while he met one of the Russian women. He dispatched Dr Nikolic to meet another woman when he was running late to see her on one occasion.

Mr Gates told Congress that Epstein was one of just three other people to know about his affairs, alongside Dr Nikolic, and later his ex-wife. He added: "Maybe a therapist, but I guess I can exclude my discussions with therapists."

Mr Gates said that while he knew about Epstein's previous conviction on a sex offence when he met him in 2011, he decided it was still worth courting the financier in a "limited role" to secure donations for his global health charities.

The billionaire insisted that he severed ties with Epstein in 2014 after his repeated promises to lure lucrative donors "led to nothing".

Dr Nikolic has previously said he "deeply" regrets "associating with" Epstein and has called him "a master manipulator". He told The Wall Street Journal:"I now know his crimes were despicable, and my heart goes out to the victims."

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