"In an interview with NPR soon after the files were released, French Gates said she was happy to be away from 'all the muck' and that the men involved, including her ex-husband, had to answer for their actions. Why did she decide to speak out then, I ask. 'Well, I had not been silent. I had been asked before what I thought of Epstein, and I had spoken my truth about what I had experienced. He was an abhorrent human being, a horrid man, and so in these situations – this is a hard topic for me, you need to know that – my heart goes out to the young girls,' she says. 'I just spoke the truth, which is they deserve some peace, and they deserve some justice.'"
"The justice system didn’t do its job. It did not do its job. Full stop. Epstein could have been stopped"
"Does she feel frustrated that while many women, including Epstein’s victims, have shown great courage in speaking out, Epstein’s male associates are choosing to stay silent? 'What I know is that bad things happen in darkness. We need to have more transparency,' she replies. French Gates understands better than most the secretive, ultra-rich world that Epstein moved in, and I wonder why she thinks he was able to get away with his crimes for so long. 'The justice system didn’t do its job. It did not do its job. Full stop. This could have been stopped. And so again, I think that’s why, finally, we are having a reckoning in society. If we don’t want children to be harmed, the justice system has to work.' But I ask, the scepticism surely sounding in my voice, are we truly having a reckoning? 'I think that would be a better question to ask the survivors,' she replies.
French Gates has said she met Epstein once and found him so repugnant that she had nightmares afterwards. I ask what had so chilled her. Her demeanour changes rapidly. She looks as if she is about to cry. It is upsetting to witness a woman of such unusual self-possession suddenly lose her poise. She turns away, to look at the lake outside her window, and I can see her attempt to compose herself. 'My heart is racing,' she says after a moment, fluttering her hand over her chest. 'Have you ever in your life been around somebody that you just know is evil?' she asks a moment later. 'There you go. You just have your answer. We need to listen to our feelings about people.'
When she said her heart was racing, was she reliving the gut reaction she had on meeting him? 'I’m done. I can’t do any more questions,' she says. I am watching French Gates, trying to read her reaction, but can sense to my right her comms person, who is listening in, tense and ready herself to end the interview if I push things too far. Then she answers. 'Yes. Any woman who has ever been around somebody who is evil or had an experience and then if you’re around somebody else who is evil. Just no, no.' I notice that while she usually speaks in full sentences, her grammar has broken down. I’m sorry, I say, I can see you’re having a strong – 'Visceral reaction, yes,' she interrupts.
~ Sophie McBain interviews Melinda French Gates
"'Have you ever been around someone you just know...'"
"When women step into their full power, we have a different lens on society. We are the bedrock of society. We are the bedrock of the family."
M. F. Gates
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