Billionaire Bill Gates, the founder and former CEO of Microsoft, has attempted in recent years to downplay his prior close relationship with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein following that man's death in a jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

Newly exposed text messages from 2017 revealed, however, that Gates "loved" Epstein and only distanced himself from his friend because of his then-wife, Melinda Gates, who despised that man, according to the Daily Mail.

As it turned out, Bill's friendship with Epstein was cited by Melinda as one of the top reasons for their divorce in 2021 after they had been married for more than 27 years.

Wife disapproved of friendship

Last week, the House Oversight Committee released around 20,000 documents and emails it had received from Epstein's estate, and that was not good news for Bill Gates, among others.

According to CBS News, included in that tranche was a series of 2017 text messages between Epstein and a top aide for Gates to discuss, among other things, a proposal for a "donor-advised" and tax-deductible charitable fund Epstein wanted to launch and run.

"He wants to talk to you but his wife won't let him," the unidentified aide said of Gates to Epstein, though he insisted in later messages that Gates "loves you," "says hi," and that he "feels bad about the [donor advised fund] btw He thought great idea but wife wouldn't allow."

A short time later, the series of messages shows, Epstein suggested that one of his close advisors, Kathryn Ruemmler -- a former Obama White House Counsel and currently the chief legal officer at Goldman Sachs -- "would love to sit with Melinda and give her the other side of Jeffrey," but there is no evidence to suggest that the meeting ever took place.

Melinda thought Epstein was "evil personified"

The apparent enmity that Melinda French Gates held toward Epstein, as revealed in the 2017 text messages, was no secret, as the divorcee openly shared this in a 2022 interview with "CBS Mornings" co-host Gayle King, according to a Newsweek report at the time.

"I did not like that he had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein," Melinda said. "I made that clear to him."

"I wanted to see who this man was, and I regretted it from the second I stepped in the door," she continued of the one time she met Epstein herself. "He was abhorrent, evil personified. I had nightmares about it afterwards."

As for the fact that Bill's relationship with Epstein persisted despite her disapproval, Melinda told the interviewer, "Any of the questions remaining about Bill's relationship ... those are for Bill to answer."

Gates admitted Epstein relationship was a "huge mistake"

The 2022 Newsweek report noted that Bill Gates released a statement about the forbidden relationship and said he "deeply regretted meeting with Epstein, as he also issued an apology to French Gates for the pain he caused her."

"Meeting with Epstein was a mistake that I regret deeply," he continued. "It was a substantial error in judgment. I remain dedicated to my work at the Gates Foundation in partnership with Melinda, where our focus is to help reduce global inequities, giving every person the chance to live a healthy and productive life."

Previously, in a 2021 interview with CNN, Gates acknowledged that his friendship with Epstein had been a "huge mistake," as he attempted to explain away their multiple meetings, and said, "I had several dinners with him, hoping what he said about getting billions [of dollars] for global health through contacts that he had might emerge."

"You know, when it looked like it wasn't a real thing, the relationship ended. But it was a huge mistake to spend time with him to give him the credibility of being there. There were lots of others in that same situation, but I made a mistake," Gates added, along with a false claim that the relationship ended in 2011, when newly released emails and texts suggest otherwise.