Bill Gates Advised To End Emails With Female Staffer, WSJ Alleges

Microsoft’s co-founder and former CEO Bill Gates reportedly sent flirtatious emails to a female staffer, but was advised to halt the correspondence.

This is the allegation made in a new report by Wall Street Journal, which cited unnamed people as saying that Bill Gates had allegedly sent flirtatious emails to a female employee, and propositioned her, whilst he was still married and chairman of the board.

Gates was allegedly advised in 2008 by Microsoft executives to halt inappropriate communication with a female employee.

Gates has denied this latest claim by the WSJ.

Previous WSJ allegation

It should be noted that a previous report from the Wall Street Journal alleged that Bill Gates’s March 2020 resignation from Microsoft’s board of directors came after the board had hired a law firm to investigate a romantic relationship he had with a Microsoft employee.

The WSJ reported back then that a Microsoft engineer had “alleged in a letter that she had a sexual relationship over years with Mr. Gates.”

Microsoft confirmed that it had received a letter.

Bill Gates admitted last year there was an affair back in 2000, but pointed out that this had nothing to do with him stepping down from Microsoft’s board.

“There was an affair almost 20 years ago which ended amicably,” a spokesperson for Gates told the WSJ last year. “Bill’s decision to transition off the board was in no way related to this matter. In fact, he had expressed an interest in spending more time on his philanthropy starting several years earlier.”

Gates stated reason for stepping down from the board to focus on his philanthropic endeavours, is contradicted by the WSJ report, which alleges board members at Microsoft pushed Gates out as they investigated an allegedly inappropriate relationship.

Fresh allegations

And now in its latest report, the Wall Street Journal has claimed that more than a decade before Gates’s departure from Microsoft, executives had allegedly discovered emails between Gates and a female mid-level staffer.

The new WSJ report alleges that Gates was flirtatious and had propositioned the female employee via email.

Gates was allegedly approached by two Microsoft executives at the time – then-general counsel Brad Smith and then-chief people officer Lisa Brummel – who asked him to stop.

Gates, according to the WSJ, admitted the exchanges were ill-advised and agreed to put an end to them.

Gates denial

However, Gates has again denied the WSJ claims.

In a statement to the Guardian newspaper, a spokesman for Gates denied the most recent Journal report.

“These claims are false, recycled rumors from sources who have no direct knowledge, and in some cases have significant conflicts of interest,” the spokesman reportedly said.

Bill and Melinda Gates suddenly announced in May 2021 they were to divorce after 27 years of marriage.

Noted philanthropist

Despite that, Bill Gates is viewed as a positive role model by many people.

As the former CEO and co-founder of software giant Microsoft, Gates is a well known philanthropist.

He is also a co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which does a lot good in the world, such as almost eliminating polio and reducing death from malaria.

But there was a bit of shade thrown at Bill Gates from Microsoft’s other co-founder Paul Allen, who passed away in 2018 after a long and protracted battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Allen wrote in his “Idea Man” memoir book in 2011 that Gates and Steve Ballmer had colluded against him in the 1980s.

Allen was first diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in September 1982, but went on to beat the disease.

But months later in March 1983, he resigned from Microsoft amid accusations that Gates and Ballmer were attempting to reduce his stock holdings in the company.