(NEXSTAR) – Melinda French Gates told a podcaster with NPR that her ex-husband Bill Gates should “answer” for allegations made by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in a 2013 email included in the latest Epstein files release. The Microsoft founder’s name makes appearances in files made public last week by the Department of Justice, including within emails that make unsubstantiated claims about Gates. A spokesperson for Gates has since called those "completely false." In two 2013 emails he sent to himself, 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 Bill intended to “surreptitiously” provide the medication to French Gates. In an upcoming episode of NPR’s "Wild Card With Rachel Martin" podcast, French Gates, who founded and previously co-chaired the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (now the Gates Foundation), was asked to address “the elephant in the room” concerning the alleged behavior described in the email. French Gates responded by saying she believes society is having a “reckoning,” and denounced Epstein’s activities with “the various people around him.” "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," she said. "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 (she and Gates divorced in 2021), but still feels “unbelievable sadness” when she learns of details of allegations against Epstein and others. “What they went through is just unimaginable,” she said, referring to any of the girls who faced sexual abuse. The full Wildcard podcast featuring French Gates is scheduled to be released Thursday. A spokesperson for Bill Gates has called the allegations made in Epstein’s 2013 email “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.