Last week, we reported that Bill and Melinda Gates shocked the world when they announced that they are divorcing after 27 years of marriage. Now, a source has come forward to shockingly claim that Bill was given advice by the late billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein on how he could end his “toxic” marriage.

A source told The Daily Beast that Bill and Epstein met dozens of times at the latter’s New York City townhouse beginning in 2011 and lasting through 2014. The insider claimed that Bill’s visits to Epstein’s home were to escape his unhappy marriage, and that the two men “were very close.”

Bill allegedly told Epstein that his marriage was “toxic,” and both men found this funny. Melinda was reportedly “furious” about her husband’s relationship with Epstein after they both visited his townhouse in September of 2013. This meeting proved to be a turning point in Bill and Epstein’s relationship, as Melinda made it clear that she was uncomfortable around the sex offender and wanted nothing to do with him.

At the time that Bill and Epstein met, the latter had already spent a year in prison for soliciting child prostitution. Bill said through a spokeswoman in 2019 that he “regrets ever meeting with Epstein and recognizes it was an error in judgment to do so.”

This comes one week after Bill and Melinda announced that they are divorcing, as their marriage is “irretrievably broken.”

“After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage,” they said in a statement. “Over the last 27 years, we have raised three incredible children and built a foundation that works all over the world to enable all people to lead healthy, productive lives.”

“We continue to share a belief in that mission and will continue our work together at the foundation, but we no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in this next phase of our lives,” their statement concluded. “We ask for space and privacy for our family as we begin to navigate this new life.”

“I think the whole family wishes this would go away so they can return to their lives — whatever that may be now,” a friend of the family said.