The Untold Story of Ghislaine Maxwell
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Born in France on Christmas Day, 1961, Ghislaine Noelle Marion Maxwell was the youngest of nine. As the daughter of British media mogul Robert Maxwell, Ghislaine grew up wealthy in Oxford, England. Her father had a reputation for being a tyrant to anyone and everyone, including his family. However, Ghislaine was reportedly his favorite child. After Maxwell purchased the Oxford United Football Club, he gave his daughter the job of director. In January 1991, he also bought the New York Daily News and again, made sure Ghislaine had a position. In early November that year, Robert Maxwell was in the Canary Islands on his yacht, named the Lady Ghislaine. His body was found in the sea and his death was later ruled an accidental drowning in conjunction with a heart attack. However, Ghislaine believed he had been murdered. Shortly after his death, the Maxwell family came under scrutiny after it was revealed that the publishing tycoon stole over one billion dollars of the pension funds at his company The Mirror Group. The massive empire crumbled, leaving Ghislaine Maxwell and her family disgraced.
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After the death of her father and the pension scandal, Ghislaine Maxwell moved to an apartment in New York and reinvented herself, continuing her reputation as a socialite while working in real estate. While it’s unclear exactly where, when, and how she met wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein, the two were seen together beginning in the early 1990s. The particulars of their evolving relationship are also mostly unknown but it’s believed they were once romantically linked. Even though she received a yearly £80,000 from a trust fund, Ghislaine was still living a subjectively less lavish lifestyle than she was accustomed to. That’s where Epstein came in. He provided the level of wealth she desired and introduced him to presidents, princes, and politicians, including former presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, and her longtime friend Prince Andrew. In 2000, she moved from her small apartment into a townhouse near Epstein’s mansion. According to people close to them, Ghislaine operated as his assistant of sorts, managing his properties, supervising staff, and making various arrangements. Many referred to her as the “Lady of the House”, though others saw her as more of a facilitator. In a 2003 interview, Epstein called her his “best friend.” But she was much more than that.
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Between roughly 1994 and 2004, Ghislaine Maxwell allegedly procured underage girls to be sexually assaulted by Jeffrey Epstein. She’d scout spas, malls, schools, and Central Park recruiting girls under the guise of job opportunities like modeling and massage therapy. Victims cited multiple properties where the abuse took place, including New York, a mansion in Palm Beach, a ranch in New Mexico, and his private island. According to witnesses as well as victims, Maxwell often sought out economically disadvantaged girls, visiting places like trailer parks. Epstein and Maxwell said they were a couple, which made the girls feel safe around them, especially with a woman present. However, after Maxwell befriended the girls and gained their trust, they were instructed to, and often trained how to, give Epstein massages, which became sexual. Some claimed Maxwell participated in the assault, both separately and apart from Epstein. They treated these acts as normal, making many girls feel confused about what was happening to them. In 1995, budding artist Maria Farmer accepted a front desk job at Epstein’s New York residence, where she witnessed very young girls coming in and out, some crying. The first time the two assaulted her was in 1996, and that same year, her younger sister Annie was invited to his New Mexico ranch, believing she was attending a student gathering. But she was alone with Maxwell and Epstein, who she claims assaulted her. That year, Maria reported Epstein to both the New York City Police and FBI … who decided not to take action. In March 2005, a mother found hundreds of dollars with her teenage stepdaughter, who said Epstein paid her for a massage and assaulted her. Palm Beach police interviewed more underage girls who’d been to the mansion. Fearing that State Attorney Barry Krischer would be too lenient, they called in the FBI, who helped compile evidence from dozens of victims. Yet Krischer’s grand jury heard evidence from only two, and in 2006, Epstein was charged with a single count of soliciting prostitution, with no mention of minors. South Florida U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta allowed Krischer to negotiate a secret “sweetheart deal” with Epstein, a non-prosecution agreement allowing him to avoid federal charges. Epstein’s lawyers included the notorious Alan Dershowitz, also known for his roles on the defense teams of O. J. Simpson, Harvey Weinstein, and Donald Trump. The deal in effect shut down the FBI’s ongoing probe. Epstein only served 13 months of an 18-month sentence in Palm Beach County jail and was given work release privileges. Epstein faced other lawsuits in the late 2000s, but they were either dismissed or settled out of court. One such lawsuit, filed in 2009 by Virginia Giuffre, then Virginia Roberts, also named Ghislaine Maxwell. Giuffre alleged that when she was a teenager, Maxwell saw her working at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, and recruited her to give Epstein ‘massages’. The case was ultimately settled out of court. Maxwell distanced herself from Epstein, at least in public. In 2012, she founded the TerraMar Project, a nonprofit oceanic conservation group. She even gave a TED talk and appeared before the United Nations. In January 2015, Giuffre included Maxwell in a civil suit against Epstein for allegedly trafficking her to his powerful friends, including Prince Andrew and Alan Dershowitz. Maxwell denied the allegations and called Giuffre a liar, leading to Giuffre suing her for defamation in September. It’s this case that’s considered the beginning of the end for Ghislaine Maxwell.
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After the media attention surrounding the defamation case, Maxwell wasn’t seen or photographed for years. In 2016, she secretly married tech CEO Scott Borgerson, which even her family didn’t know about. However, she was back in the headlines in April 2019 when sisters Maria and Annie Farmer went public with the allegations against Maxwell and Epstein. On July 2nd, a court ordered that documents from Giuffre’s civil suit be unsealed. They included serious evidence against Maxwell, including a photo of both of them with Prince Andrew and written phone messages about scheduling massages. On July 6th, Epstein was arrested for sex trafficking. A month later, he died in his cell, having apparently taken his own life. It would be months before the FBI announced they were investigating Maxwell as an accomplice as well as other co-conspirators. Ghislaine Maxwell stayed in hiding until officials tracked her down on July 2, 2020, at a secluded home in Bradford, New Hampshire. She was arrested on four charges of conspiracy and the enticement of minors, and two charges of perjury for lying under oath in the 2016 depositions. Her victims reacted with hope, while reactions from former friends were more muted. In March 2021, sex trafficking charges were added. Maxwell pleaded not guilty to all charges but was denied bail multiple times. The first trial began on Nov 29, 2021. A month later, she was found guilty of five out of six tracking charges. She was given a sentence of 20 years imprisonment that will be served at Tallahassee’s Federal Correctional Institute. In August 2022, Maxwell’s own lawyers sued her for unpaid legal fees to the tune of $878,000. As of November 2022, Maxwell’s perjury trial has not been scheduled.
Maxwell in the Media
Several in-depth documentaries have revolved around Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, as well as books, articles, and podcasts. In 2022, the BBC, Paramount Plus, and Starz all released docuseries specifically about Maxwell’s privileged upbringing, her enigmatic relationship with Epstein, and the various court proceedings. In November, Netflix launched “Ghislaine Maxwell: Filthy Rich”, two years after the series focused on Epstein.
