(NEXSTAR) – Bill Gates has said he regrets “ever knowing” convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in a new interview with Australia’s 9News. Gates, 70, sat down with Charles Croucher of 9News this week, several days after the U.S. Department of Justice released its latest trove of documents from the so-called Epstein files. The Microsoft founder’s name makes appearances in some of the files, including within emails that make unsubstantiated allegations about his behavior with women. Gates told Croucher that he only ever had “dinners” with Epstein, as he believed Epstein might be interested in securing donations for the Gates Foundation. “It’s factually true that I was only at dinners,” Gates said. “Y’know, I never went to the island, I never met any women. So the more that comes out, the more clear it will be that, although the time was a mistake, it had nothing to do with that kind of behavior.” Gates added, "I was foolish to spend time with him. I was one of many people who regret ever knowing him." 9News’ interview with Gates was published Wednesday, only one day after NPR reported that Melinda French Gates, his ex-wife, had remarked that Gates needs to “answer” for allegations made by Epstein in 2013 email drafts. In the documents, Epstein suggested he facilitated “illicit trysts” for Gates, who had engaged in “sex with Russian girls” and “married women.” He also claimed that Gates asked him to procure medication for an STI, and alleged that Gates had intended to “surreptitiously” provide the medication to French Gates. "Whatever questions remain there of what I don’t — I can't even begin to know all of it — those questions are for those people and even my ex-husband," French Gates said on an upcoming episode of NPR’s “Wild Card With Rachel Martin” podcast. "They need to answer to those things, not me. And I am so happy to be away from all the muck that was there.” French Gates also said she had moved on from memories of “very, very painful times” in her marriage, but still feels “unbelievable sadness” for anyone allegedly victimized by Epstein or others. A spokesperson for Bill Gates has previously called the allegations made in Epstein’s 2013 emails “absolutely absurd and completely false.” "The only thing these documents demonstrate is Epstein's frustration that he did not have an ongoing relationship with Gates and the lengths he would go to entrap and defame,” a spokesperson for Gates told Nexstar in an emailed statement on Tuesday.