Bill Gates being interviewed by Russian bridge player Mila Antonova in a 2010 unearthed video
She already knew the answer, but Russian bridge connoisseur Mila Antonova posed the question to one of the most recognizable – and wealthiest – men in the world.
‘Who are you?’ she said from behind the camera at the National Bridge Tournament in Reno, Nevada in March 2010.
“Bill Gates,” he replied simply with a flirtatious smile on his face that made her giggle off screen.
Antonova was about 26 at the time and ran BridgeUnion.com, a website dedicated to the game.
Gates was 54, married, and ran one of the largest software companies in the world.
But despite his hectic schedule, he found enough time to talk to the young Russian through the small website.
Russian bridge player Mila Antonova interviewing Bill Gates for her website BridgeUnion.com at the 2010 National Bridge Tournament in Reno, Nevada
Gates, who would have been 54 at the time, can be seen answering questions with a flirty smile as the then 26-year-old grills him behind the camera
The video, made for Antonova’s website, shows Gates very engaged, listening and smiling as Antonova asks questions in her heavy Russian accent.
When Antonova asked how to play the game, Gates suggested people “go online and find people” and play other bridge-type games.
Antonova asked, “Do you think bridge helped you in your work?”
With a grin, Gates replied, “It helps you think very concretely. I played a lot of card games when I was young. Bridge is the king of all card games.’
That seemingly innocent conversation now takes on more meaning since the revelation that the two had an affair and that shamed pedophile Jeffrey Epstein tried to blackmail the once richest man in the world by revealing the details.
Antonova and Gates had met before. They had played the game last year in Washington, DC.
“I didn’t hit him, I kicked him – with my leg,” she later said in a speech she gave about why people should play the card game.
Whether they had begun their brief fling at the time of the interview is unknown.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Epstein met Antonova three years later and paid her to attend coding school.
He also somehow learned about the affair and later used that knowledge to threaten the Microsoft boss.
In another YouTube video from 2010, Antonova discussed meeting Bill Gates that year and showed a photo of the pair together
The bridge teacher, who advocated the benefits of the card game, had met Gates a year earlier at NABC.
Gates posed with young bridge players on a
The allegations were made in a blockbuster weekend report that shed new light on Gates’ alleged infidelity during his 27-year marriage to Melinda French Gates.
The two men had met several times in the early 2010s to discuss philanthropic ventures.
When Gates refused to join one of Epstein’s funds, the late pedophile emailed him asking him to reimburse the cost of Anatova’s education, even though he could have easily paid for it himself.
“The amount was of no concern to the two men and the tone of the message was that Epstein knew about the affair and could disclose it,” the Journal reported.
A spokeswoman for Gates insisted his dealings with Epstein were “for philanthropic purposes only.”
“After repeatedly failing to lure Mr. Gates out of these matters, Epstein unsuccessfully tried to use a past relationship to threaten Mr. Gates,” she added.
Gates, now 67, learned bridge from his parents and the card game became one of his favorite hobbies.
Gates’ love of the card game has been widely reported. He is pictured playing an intense game at the North American Bridge Championships in the early 2000s
The billionaire tech magnate, who was married to Melinda Gates but has since divorced, was 55 at the time of the alleged affair. Antonova, meanwhile, was in her twenties
In a separate 2010 online conversation, which is also online, Anatova praised Gates as an “enthusiastic” bridge player and expressed how big a fan of the game he was.
Antonova joked that when she told friends she met Gates two years earlier, “no one believed me.”
She said bridge was a partnership and quoted the late actress Mae West: “Bridge is like sex: if you don’t have a good partner, you better have a good hand.”
Antonova attended a university in Russia between 2000 and 2005 and now works as a software engineer in the San Francisco area, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Among her interests, she lists ‘Bill Gates’.
During that period, Epstein and Gates’ friendship blossomed, and as of 2011, the Microsoft founder met with the pedophile more than six times, including dinners at his New York townhouse.
Antonova was introduced to Epstein by Boris Nikolic, a Gates confidante and top science adviser at the time, because she wanted to raise money for an online company to teach people how to play bridge.
Pictured: Jes Staley, Larry Summers, Jeffrey Epstein, Bill Gates and Boris Nikolic. Pictured right, Nikolic was an advisor to Gates and the person who introduced Mila Antonova to Epstein in 2013 when she was trying to raise money for an online bridge platform
As of 2011, Gates met Epstein multiple times. Gates attended dinner parties at Epstein’s New York City home (pictured), the Wall Street Journal reported
Epstein had been trying to set up a multi-billion dollar charitable fund with JP Morgan and it depended on Gates backing, but he wasn’t interested.
That’s when Epstein — who died in 2019 in a New York jail while awaiting trial on numerous sex trafficking charges — sent his threatening email, according to the Journal.
The content of the email is not included in the report.
Gates and his wife French Gates separated due to his alleged infidelity and his friendship with Epstein, which upset her.
He is accused of having a year-long affair with a Microsoft employee and pursuing several other staff members, claims that led to his being removed from the company’s board of directors.
It is unclear whether 58-year-old French Gates knew about the affair with Antonova when she divorced her former husband in 2021.
They had three children together and split their combined fortune of £93 billion when they split.
In an interview after the split, French Gates said she told Gates that Epstein was “evil in personification” but met him anyway.
Mila Antonova (right) is pictured attending another bridge tournament in 2013, the same year she met with Epstein to discuss funding for her venture BridgePlanet
Reports at the time claimed that Gates turned to Epstein for advice about his “toxic” marriage — and the late pedophile advised him to get a divorce.
The New York Times claimed that in 2006 after hearing a presentation from a female Microsoft employee, who was the company’s president at the time, Gates walked out and immediately emailed the woman asking her out.
Gates wrote to her, “If this makes you uncomfortable, pretend it never happened.”
Gates flew on Epstein’s private jet, nicknamed the “Lolita Express,” and he once remarked that the financiers’ “lifestyle is different and kind of intriguing,” but wasn’t for him.
Antonova, now 39, did not respond to requests for comment.
She told the Journal, “I had no idea he (Epstein) was a criminal or had an ulterior motive. I just thought he was a successful businessman and wanted to help. I am disgusted with Epstein and what he did.”