Bill Gates "took responsibility for his actions" over ties to late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in a town hall meeting with employees of the Gates Foundation, a spokesperson for the philanthropic group told Reuters in a written statement on Tuesday.

Axar.az informs, citing Reuters, the spokesperson's comments came in response to a Wall Street Journal report, which said that Gates had apologized to staff during the town hall over his ties with Epstein.

According to the Journal report, Gates told staff that it was a huge mistake to spend time with Epstein and bring Gates Foundation executives into meetings with the sex offender. The report cited a recording of the comments Gates made in the town hall.

"I apologize to other people who are drawn into this because of the mistake that I made," he said, according to the newspaper.

The Journal added that Gates also acknowledged that he had two affairs with Russian women that Epstein later discovered, but that they did not involve Epstein's victims.

"To be clear I never spent any time with victims, the women around him," Gates added, according to the report.