WORLD EXCLUSIVE: Bill Gates's younger Russian 'lover' and her links to ... trends now
Two young women stride along a New York street, barely breaking step to flash smiles at the camera. One of them is slightly out of focus but her face - and the face of her friend - is unmistakable. Chillingly so.
The woman on the right is Russian bridge player Mila Antonova, the woman alleged this week to have been the former lover of billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates - as well as an associate and financial beneficiary of the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
What makes this photograph sensational, however, is the presence of the flame-haired woman on the left. She is none other than notorious Moscow spy Anna Chapman.
This week, a world exclusive investigation by the Daily Mail has uncovered a potentially disturbing and unexplained link between Gates' erstwhile Russian 'lover' and Kremlin spook Chapman. While there is no evidence of any wrongdoing on Antonova's part, it seems to be a connection which raises serious questions for Gates and, of course, for the California-based Russian herself.
Despite repeated approaches this week, it's still not known whether the 67-year-old Microsoft boss had any knowledge of a potential link between Antonova and Chapman, the daughter of a former KGB officer.
Anna Chapman and Mila Antonova
Bill Gates is rumoured to have had an affair with Russian bridge player Ms Antonova
Jeffrey Epstein, Bill Gates and Boris Nikolic, who is said to have introduced Gates to Antonova
Last week, however, his spokeswoman admitted that paedophile Epstein, who was known to cultivate friendships with the ultra-wealthy in order to exploit them, had 'tried unsuccessfully to leverage a past relationship' to threaten Gates into doing his bidding.
At the time of his brief 'relationship' with Antonova, who is nearly 30 years his junior, father-of-three Gates was still married to his wife Melinda.
Registered sex offender Epstein wanted Gates to become an 'anchor donor' in a multi-billion dollar global charitable fund which he planned to set up, to camouflage his sordid private life, and increase his influence.
The pair had more than half a dozen meetings and Gates once flew on Epstein's private jet, known as the 'Lolita Express'. He has since said he regrets meeting with the disgraced financier who apparently killed himself in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
His spokeswoman has insisted any meetings were 'solely for philanthropic purposes'. Gates ultimately declined to join Epstein's charitable fund and the project did not go ahead.
Even so, the question remains; if Epstein knew about the alleged affair - and later made sure Gates knew he knew - did he also know of Antonova's apparent links to Chapman?
Certainly, a relationship between Gates, one of the most influential businessmen on the planet, and a woman who appears to have connections to a Kremlin intelligence agent is troubling.
Anna Chapman also worked as a fashion model
Chapman, 41, was among a ring of Russian spies, all carrying out long-term, deep-cover assignments across the US. She moved to New York in 2009 from the UK where she had been issued with a UK passport after marrying a British man.
The FBI finally swooped on her and other Russian SVR (formerly KGB) intelligence agents in June 2010, after this photograph was taken in East 65th Street in Manhattan. It captures a smug-looking Chapman gesturing with her hand towards the former Art Deco office block, a stone's throw from Wall Street, where she kept a luxury apartment.
Her arrest came less than a year after the then 53-year-old Gates first met Antonova, in the somewhat unlikely setting of the North American Bridge Championship tournament in Washington DC in the summer of 2009.
Gates, now a technology adviser to Microsoft and one of its largest shareholders, is a well-known bridge devotee and a regular attendee at the thrice-annual NABC tournaments. Antonova, who's believed to be 39, is also a keen player and has previously claimed that the card game, which she learnt at school in Russia, helped her focus on her studies.
A professional player who has played with Antonova, described her as an 'intermediate player, like Gates'.
Speaking to the Mail, he added: 'She was a nice young woman, very keen on bridge and smart. She certainly had an interest in the game and a drive to get better.'
The professional player added that the NABC tournaments were also 'social events'.
As a Russian spy, Anna Chapman carried out deep-cover work across the United States
'Many people have fun and enjoy meeting new people when they're not playing. It's a convivial atmosphere.'
It is not known exactly when their alleged affair began but in August 2009, just a few weeks after the Washington tournament held at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Antonova appeared to be in a happy frame of mind when she tweeted that she was 'going to bed and very excited about the future'.
Seven months later, in March 2010, the pair were seen together again at the NABC spring tournament in Reno, Nevada.
This week, the Mail discovered a video of Gates made by Antonova during the tournament for her Bridgeunion.com website. Speaking in heavily-accented Russian, she begins by asking him: 'Who are you?'. The flirtatious smile he gives in return and her off-screen giggles seem to suggest they both find the question amusing.
A couple of months later, on June 9, 2010, Antonova boasted of her connection to Gates at an 'Ignite NYC' conference, at which speakers were allowed just five minutes on stage in front of New York's 'brightest geeks' to share their chosen subject.
Giving her theme as 'bridge is a powerful mind game', she quoted the Hollywood star and acerbic wit, Mae West, who'd once famously quipped: 'Good sex is like bridge: if you don't have a good partner, you'd better have a good hand.' The actress had, she said, 'found great connection between my two favourite things'.
A video of her confident performance shows the Russian, appearing much younger than her years, her dyed red hair plaited into girlish braids as she repeats that saucy Mae West quote on stage. She also name-drops Gates along with his close friend and sometime bridge partner, billionaire industrialist Warren Buffett, claiming the pair are 'very avid players' who'd 'donated a million dollars to promote bridge at schools'.
It's worth noting that in 2009 Antonova had set up her own, and now defunct, organisation - Bridge Union - to do just that - promote the game among deprived schoolchildren. It's perhaps worth noting, too, that Anna Chapman also claimed to have worked for Buffett while living in New York.
During her speech, an image of Antonova and Gates appears on a screen beside her. She tells the audience: 'Two years ago, I said, 'Everyone, I'm going to meet this guy',' suggesting her meeting with the billionaire was premeditated.
She adds: 'No-one believed me. Last year, I played against him at the same table at the National Bridge Tournament in Washington D.C. I didn't beat him, but I tried to kick him with my leg.'
Bill and Melinda Gates were married for 27 years but split two years ago
Antonova also said that she came to New York in 2006 - although she
