Oslo: A Norwegian journalist has admitted he fabricated interviews with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and American talk show host Oprah Winfrey.
Freelance writer Bjoern Benkow said in a statement that the interviews, published in Norwegian and Swedish media, were partially concocted because of financial "desperation," newspaper Verdens Gang reported.
"I have met and talked to these global celebrities," Benkow said and added, "But the circumstances and times have not always been as I described."
The acknowledgment came after Microsoft Norway said last week that an interview with Gates, printed in the Norwegian magazine Mann and top-selling Swedish tabloid daily Aftonbladet, was "totally fake".
Benkow claimed he spoke to Gates during a two-hour commercial flight in Europe, but Microsoft officials said Gates had not been on that plane. In the four-page interview entitled Big Bill, Gates was quoted as saying that he never carries more than a "dime" in his pocket and that he makes USD one bets with his wife.
Benkow maintained that the quotes used in the article were real, but apologised for lying about when he spoke to Gates. "What I did was done out of desperation," VG quoted Benkow as saying. "To pay the rent, electricity, food and to survive."
The editors of Mann apologized for the article last week.
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