Ghislaine Maxwell makes startling claims in new TV interview

Speaking from prison, Ghislaine Maxwell has tried to distance herself from billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein in a bombshell new interview.

Ghislaine Maxwell has spoken in a new interview on 60 Minutes about the sex trafficking crimes she was convicted of committing for late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Speaking from a Florida prison, where she is serving her 20 year sentence, the disgraced former British socialite said she was not the person so many people believed her to be.

“I’m (not) the cruellest, meanest, horriblest person who’s done, committed crimes. And I mean I literally haven’t seen any details that are accurate,” she told her brother Kevin and producer Daphne Barack, in an interview brokered for the program that aired on Sunday night.

Maxwell’s siblings – who support their sister – were permanent fixtures at her trial in New York.

Ghislaine Maxwell speaking to 60 Minutes from jail. Picture: 60 Minutes

Maxwell’s other brother, Ian, said the family believe she has done nothing wrong.

“My sister is no monster. We believe in her innocence and that she’ll be exonerated in the end,” he said.

Maxwell was found guilty of five sex trafficking-related counts by a US court in late 2021 but her legal team has said they will appeal the verdict.

The charges stemmed from crimes committed against four women between 1994 and 2004.

Prosecutors successfully proved that she was “the key” to Epstein’s scheme of enticing young girls to give him massages, during which he would sexually abuse them.

New York judge Alison Nathan described Maxwell’s crimes as “heinous and predatory” at her sentencing.

Ghislaine Maxwell made some startling claims. Picture: 60 Minutes

Of her long-documented association with Epstein, Maxwell said in her prison interview she “doesn’t love” to think of herself as a victim but that she wishes she “had never met him”.

“I didn’t know that he was so awful. I mean obviously now, looking back with hindsight of course,” she said.

“Clearly the fact that I worked for him and that I spent time with him and knew him has devastated my life and hurt many people that I love and hold dear that are around me.”

The jail where Maxwell is imprisoned.

During the call, she also claimed Prince Andrew was set up and that a photograph of him with Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre – who accused Epstein and Maxwell of trafficking her to the royal when she was a teen – is a fake.

The Duke of York has vehemently denied the claims and settled the case for an undisclosed figure last year.

Prince Andrew, Virginia Giuffre, and Ghislaine Maxwell pose for a photo. Picture: Handout / US District Court — Southern District of New York (SDNY) / AFP

It’s been reported he is moving to withdraw the settlement which has previously been rumoured to be around $A20m.

“I have information that would indicate it’s a fraud, a fake,” Maxwell said of the picture allegedly taken in her London townhouse.

Ms Giuffre was not called as a witness during the trial, but she was mentioned during testimony and submitted a victim impact statement to the sentencing of Maxwell.

Ghislaine Maxwell has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for sex trafficking minors. Her lawyer Bobbi Sternheim told reporters outside court that Jeffrey Epstein was “cunning until the end” and left her client Ghislaine Maxwell “holding the whole bag”. She will appeal. pic.twitter.com/zrV63r4zUs

— Megan Palin (@Megan_Palin) June 28, 2022

Meanwhile, Maxwell said that she wishes Epstein’s victims – who she maintains were not also her own despite her convictions – well.

“I hope that they have some closure by the judicial process that took place,” she said.

“And I wish them time to heal and to be able to have a productive and good life going forward and that’s what I hope for them.”

Epstein died in a New York prison cell in 2019 after an apparent suicide.

During the interview, Maxwell said she believed he was in fact murdered.

Epstein had served a 13-month prison sentence for sex charges 11 years before and was arrested in 2019 for the suspected sex trafficking of dozens of minors in New York and Florida.