Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates' alleged Russian lover had links to notorious Kremlin spy Anna Chapman shortly before the secret agent New York City bust in 2010. The flame-haired former femme fatale was seen in a photo strolling near Wall Street with Mila Antonova, the decades-younger bridge player with whom Gates allegedly had an affair, the Daily Mail reported.
This comes days after it was reported that Jeffery Epstein threatened to expose Gates' alleged affair with Antonova in 2010 after the Microsoft co-founder declined to join his philanthropic venture. Epstein, reportedly, used his knowledge of the affair and sent a seemingly threatening email to Gates in 2017.
Secret Links with Secret Agent
According to the outlet, Chapman is seen in the photo pointing toward a former Art Deco office building close to her home as Antonova smiles next to her. The report claims that the photo was likely taken in 2009 or early 2010 during Gates' alleged romance with the Russian bridge player.
However, it was not immediately clear on Friday how Antonova came to know Chapman, the daughter of a former KGB official expelled from the US for spying.
The suspicious photograph surfaced only a few days after a bombshell report claimed that Jeffrey Epstein threatened to expose Gates' alleged affair with Antonova.
The late pedophile allegedly threatened him over his claimed relationship with Antonova, who is roughly 30 years his junior, after Gates declined to join his humanitarian initiative in 2017, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Russian intelligence operative and model Chapman was detained in June 2010 after it was found that she was part of an illegal spy ring.
Chapman and nine other spies were deported to their native country as part of a massive prisoner swap after she pleaded guilty to conspiring to pose as an unregistered agent.
According to the Daily Mail, there is no proof that Antonova, a 39-year-old California resident, was involved in the spying scheme or any other wrongdoing.
Love and Threat
According to reports, Gates allegedly met Antonova at a tournament in 2010 and had an affair with her around the same time. Gates has previously mentioned bridge as one of his favorite pastimes. She was in her 20s, and Gates was 55.
In a 2010 video on her love of bridge, Antonova acknowledged that she was friendly with Gates. However, sources told the Journal that the two had a brief romantic relationship while Gates was still married to his then-wife, Melinda French Gates.
Epstein met Antonova in 2013 when she was seeking funding to launch an online bridge platform., Although he didn't fund the project, Epstein eventually paid for her to enroll in a software coding school.
The 'threat' wasn't made until Epstein wrote to Gates in 2017 asking for reimbursement for Antonova's coding school in a tone that suggested he was aware of the romance and had the ability to make it public.
The email was sent shortly after the tech giant turned down the convicted sex offender's invitation to join his multibillion-dollar organization, insiders told the newspaper.
Gates, 67, previously acknowledged and expressed regret for meeting with Epstein numerous times in the 2010s -- after Epstein was found guilty in Florida in 2008 of soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution—as part of efforts to raise money for the Gates Foundation.
Gates denied paying or reimbursing those fees. "Mr. Gates never had any financial dealings with Epstein. As Bill has said before, it was a mistake to have ever met him," his spokesperson told DailyMail.com on Sunday.
The spokesperson added that Gates met Epstein only for philanthropic purposes but didn't clearly say what kind of relationship Gates shared with Antonova.
"Mr. Gates met with Epstein solely for philanthropic purposes. Having failed repeatedly to draw Mr. Gates beyond these matters, Epstein tried unsuccessfully to leverage a past relationship to threaten Mr. Gates," a spokesperson for Gates said.
A photo of Gates and Antonova together is shown in a 2010 YouTube video where Antonova gives a presentation on the card game and talks about meeting the billionaire at the competition.
The affair with Antonova would be Gates' second reported infidelity during his 27-year marriage to Melinda.
Gates admitted in 2021 through a spokesperson that he had an almost 20-year romance with a Microsoft worker. The relationship, the spokeswoman added, "ended amicably" before Gates left the company to focus on his philanthropy.
According to Microsoft spokesman Frank Shaw, the incident was investigated by the company's board in 2019 after they received an email from an engineer.
The woman urged Melinda to read her letter, which revealed the affair and sought changes to her Microsoft employment in the email.
While calls for Gates to resign mounted in response to the email, the tech mogul was nonetheless re-elected to Microsoft's board before he resigned in 2020.
The news of the romance came following multiple reports that Gates awkwardly asked out various women who worked for him at Microsoft and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
It is still unclear how much Melinda was aware of her husband's alleged actions.
