Tech billionaire Peter Thiel advanced a conspiracy theory about Jeffrey Epstein‘s alleged involvement in the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation while on the Joe Rogan Experience.

The former managing director of PayPal told the host he had developed his own theory about why the Microsoft founder set up the poverty-fighting nonprofit in 2000.

Rumors have swirled about the breakup and impact of Bill’s relationship with Epstein since the couple divorced in 2021, Melinda reportedly taking $76billion in the settlement before leaving the Foundation this June with a deal worth $12.5billion.

Peter Thiel told Joe Rogan in an episode of the show aired this week he believed the Foundation itself was a ploy suggested by disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein in lieu of a marriage prenup, allowing Bill Gates to stop his wife taking more in the divorce.

‘My sort of straightforward “alternate” conspiracy theory is…Bill and Melinda get married in 1994, they don’t sign a prenup and something’s going wrong with the marriage and maybe Melinda can get half the money in a divorce. He doesn’t want her to get half the money. And what do you do?’ he said on the show.

‘The alternate plan is something like: You commit the marital assets to this non-profit and it sort of locks Melinda into not complaining about the marriage for a long, long time… so there’s something about the left-wing philanthropy world that was some sort of Boomer way to control their crazy wives, or something like this.’

During the sit-down, Thiel referred to the relationship between Epstein and Bill Gates.

The pair met ‘several times’ in spite of the revelations about Epstein’s sex-trafficking of minors, from his first guilty plea in 2008.

Melinda Gates cited ‘evil, abhorrent’ Epstein’s relationship with Bill in her reasons for the divorce, telling CBS: ‘I did not like that he had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein’.

Last year, it was reported Epstein had appeared to threaten and tried to blackmail Bill Gates over an alleged affair.

Bill has since admitted the meetings with the disgraced financier were a ‘huge mistake’.

‘[Bill Gates] supposedly talked to Epstein early on about how his marriage wasn’t doing that well and Epstein suggested that he should get a divorce, circa 2010, 2011,’ Thiel claimed, without pushback from Rogan.

‘And Gates told him something like, you know, that doesn’t quite work, presumably because he didn’t have a prenup,’ he continued.

‘So there’s one part as Epstein as a marriage counsellor, which is sort of disturbing.

‘But then the second thing that we know that Gates talked to Epstein about was sort of, all the sort of collaborating on funding, setting up this philanthropy, somewhat corrupt left-wing philanthropy structure.

‘My sort of straightforward alternate conspiracy theory is… shall we combine those two and was there…

‘Bill and Melinda get married in 1994, the don’t sign a prenup and something’s going wrong with the marriage and maybe Melinda can get half the money in a divorce.

‘He doesn’t want her to get half the money. And what do you do?’

Thiel, who was slammed by Melinda Gates last month for not doing enough philanthropy himself, sensationally claimed Bill had intentionally ‘locked’ Melinda into the non-profit to restrict her access to his money.

He framed the conspiracy as a trope of what he called the ‘Left-wing philanthropy world’, used as a ‘Boomer way to control their crazy wives’.

‘It’s a way to whitewash your past, right?’ Joe Rogan replied.

There is no evidence Thiel’s self-described ‘conspiracy theory’ holds any water.

Gates has admitted he did meet with the financier and described the meetings as a ‘mistake’.

‘I made a mistake ever meeting with Jeffrey Epstein. You know, maybe her [Melinda’s] instincts on that were keener than mine,’ he told the BBC in 2022.

‘Any meeting I had with him could be viewed as almost condoning his evil behaviour. So, that was a mistake.’

Melinda Gates announced she was leaving the Foundation in May 2024, saying the move was part of her transition to ‘the next chapter of my philanthropy’.

The Gates’ foundation is the world’s largest private charitable foundation, with an endowment of $75.2 billion as of December 2023 according to its website.

In 2015, Melinda founded her own organization, Pivotal Ventures, which aims to implement innovative solutions to problems affecting U.S. women and families.

‘Under the terms of my agreement with Bill, in leaving the foundation, I will have an additional $12.5 billion to commit to my work on behalf of women and families.

‘I’ll be sharing more about what that will look like in the near future.’

Bill and Melinda met in 1987 – the same year he became the world’s youngest billionaire at the age of 31.

They went on to marry in Hawaii in 1994, and have three children together: Jennifer, 28, Rory, 24, and Phoebe, 21.

Their divorce came amid rumors about Gates’ checkered love life after it emerged he had an affair with a Russian bridge player, and that Jeffrey Epstein had tried to ‘extort’ him over the relationship.

Peter Thiel founded Confinity in 1998 (initially Fieldlink) before merging with Musk’s X.com

Thiel today is worth an estimated $8.4billion, according to Forbes

Melinda Gates, then co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, takes part in an ‘Empowering Women as Entrepreneurs and Leaders’ panel in Washington in 2023

The Microsoft founder claimed he never had any business relationship or friendship with Epstein, and their meetings were solely to discuss philanthropic ventures.

After announcing his divorce from Melinda, Microsoft employees alleged that Gates had pursued sexual affairs with employees and journalists.

After Bill’s connections to Epstein came to light in 2019 – which he claims were purely for philanthropic reasons – Melinda reportedly began consulting lawyers about splitting up their $150 billion, according to an upcoming book by New York Times journalist Anupreeta Das.

Thiel, who has supported various right-wing causes and voiced support from Trump in the past, has found himself aligned with Musk in backing Republican campaigns.

Musk, who founded PayPal in 2000 by merging his X.com direct bank with Confinity, has clashed with Bill Gates in the past, having been criticized for not giving away more of his fortune and allegedly criticizing Gates’ manner of charity in return.

Musk reportedly quizzed Gates on why he had shorted Tesla’s stock, expecting its value to lower, prompting an apology.

Musk biographer Walter Isaacson said Musk felt Gates’ climate change work was hypocritical, nonetheless, and said he could not ‘take your philanthropy on climate seriously’.

Musk went on to mock Gates’ appearance in a post on Twitter.

DailyMail.com contacted the Gates Foundation for comment.