Ghislaine Maxwell’s husband dumped her for yoga teacher in jailhouse call: report
The mystery spouse of Ghislaine Maxwell was absent during her sex crimes trial and reportedly dropped the disgraced heiress in a prison phone call.
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Ghislaine Maxwell’s husband told her he’d dumped her for a yoga teacher during a “confrontational” phone call while she was in solitary confinement, according to a report.
The Post first revealed last month how Scott Borgerson, 46, had been spotted kissing mother of two Kris McGinn during regular outings near his New England estate — while notably skipping every day of his wife’s trial that led to her conviction on sex-trafficking charges last week.
A close friend of Maxwell told the Mail on Sunday that tech entrepreneur Borgerson dumped Maxwell during a phone call to her in the Metropolitan Detention Centre, the Brooklyn prison where she’s being housed under solitary confinement.
“There was a dramatic phone call between them, while she was in jail in solitary confinement. It became confrontational,” the source told the UK paper, without giving an exact timeline.
“Scott told her he had moved on and was seeing someone else.
“The marriage was past tense there and then. It’s over. The marriage was over before the trial started,” the source reportedly insisted.
Another insider pointed to the absence of Borgerson from wife Maxwell’s trial while the rest of her family publicly supported her at the trial.
Maxwell’s husband didn’t appear once in the courtroom during her trial for sex trafficking – and now he is reportedly dating another woman.
Shipping magnate Borgerson paid tens of millions of dollars in bond to support Maxwell’s bail application last year, but pictures published in the United Kingdom suggest he has begun a new relationship with McGinn, a 49-year-old journalist and mother-of-two who works in Manchester-by-the-Sea, the Massachusetts town where Mr Borgerson lives.
London’s The Daily Telegraph reported she spends every spare weekend with him.
The status of his marriage to Maxwell though is unclear – she argued the marriage would keep her in the US when she was attempting to get bail and few other details are known.
The Telegraph reported Maxwell claimed after the bail attempt she was in the process of divorcing him when she was arrested, so he would not suffer from “being associated with her”.
Mr Borgerson called Maxwell a “wonderful and loving person” and said he believed she “had nothing to do” with Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes, her bail hearing was told.
Neither Mr Borgerson or Ms McGinn would comment when approached.
It comes as Maxwell’s brother, Ian Maxwell, says he does not think Ghislaine will “flip” and help prosecutors convict others close to Jeffrey Epstein as she awaits sentencing for sex trafficking.
“Prosecution confirmed no plea bargain offers were made or received [before the trial],” Ian Maxwell told The Sunday Times.
“I expect that position to be maintained.”
In his first TV interview since his sister’s conviction, Ian Maxwell told Sky News: “The prosecution has said that they have never made her any offer and she has never made them any offer. I don’t think that’s going to change.
“I don’t know what Ghislaine has to say about anyone else.
“Her position is she did not participate or was aware of these terrible activities, so her logical position must be that’s to be continued. Therefore why is she suddenly going to start producing names or who knows what. I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
Her refusal to co-operate with prosecutors to get a lighter sentence could come as a relief to alleged co-conspirators, including four women employed by Maxwell and partner in crime Jeffery Epstein, and to others linked to the tawdry couple, such as Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates and Donald Trump, The Sunday Times reported.
Meanwhile, an alleged victim of Jeffrey Epstein has described Ghislaine Maxwell as being the “devil’s right hand man”, saying she was “more evil than Epstein”.
As the British socialite now awaits her sentence after her family work on her appeal, Australian resident Virginia Roberts Giuffre told New York magazine’s The Cut she had “been dreaming of this day for the last 10 years, not knowing that it was going to come”.
“It’s a bittersweet emotion because I have been fighting for so long.”
She told the magazine that Maxwell used her “womanly abilities to make me feel comfortable.”
She said: “The deceit hurts even more because I fell naively into her trap. I mean, she is poised. She looks sophisticated. She didn’t raise any hairs on the back of my head.”
Roberts Giuffre said Maxwell had seen her reading a book about massage therapy and was able to gain her confidence.
“The thing about predators is they seek the vulnerable, find out what they want, and promise them a dream,” she said.
“That’s how they work. Cages and chains come in all different shapes and sizes. I wasn’t tied to a radiator or anything, like you’ve seen in movies. My shackles were Epstein and Ghislaine’s wealth and the powerful people they knew.
“She’s definitely worse than Epstein. She used that charm, that wit, that smile to come off as somebody you want to trust … She’s worse to me, more evil than Epstein. What Ghislaine did to so many of us, it’s unforgivable.”
She added: “No matter how rich or how connected you are, you can still be held accountable.”
US lawyer Gloria Allred, who is representing 20 people who have accused Epstein and Maxwell, said the verdicts sent a stern message to other sexual predators.
“This does send a message to other sex predators and those who would conspire to sex-traffic underage girls to them that this will be taken very seriously, charges may be filed against you, you may be prosecuted and you may end up getting sentenced to prison for the rest of your life, as may be the case with Miss Maxwell,” she told BBC Breakfast.
“Beware and do not conspire with or become a sexual predator yourself, because underage girls are very vulnerable. They are easy to take advantage of and it is taken very seriously when they are preyed upon by adults who do know better.”
Other victims also expressed their relief after Maxwell was found guilty in a Manhattan federal court of a series of sex crimes, the most serious being the sex trafficking of a minor, which carries a maximum 40 year sentence.
“I am so relieved and grateful that the jury recognised the pattern of predatory behaviour that Maxwell engaged in,” said Annie Farmer, one of four victims to testify in the high-profile trial, in a statement on Twitter.
“I hope that this verdict brings solace to all who need it and demonstrates that no one is above the law,” said Farmer, who was the only woman not to testify under a pseudonym.
“Even those with great power and privilege will be held accountable when they sexually abuse and exploit the young.”
Maxwell’s siblings say they have already begun work on their appeal.
“We have already started working on the appeal, and we are confident that she will be vindicated,” lawyer Bobbi Sternheim told reporters outside court in New York.
Maxwell’s siblings Kevin and Christine said in a statement: “We believe firmly in our sister’s innocence. We are very disappointed with the verdict. We have already started the appeal tonight and we believe that she will ultimately be vindicated.”
Maxwell, 60, will likely spend the rest of her life in prison after she was found guilty on five of six counts of grooming underage girls for her one-time boyfriend Epstein.
A 12-person jury in New York took six days to reach their unanimous verdict.
A date for her sentencing has not been set, but she could face a maximum of 65 years behind bars for her role in what lawyer Damian Williams called “one of the worst crimes imaginable – facilitating and participating in the sexual abuse of children”.
The sixth count alone – sex trafficking of a minor – has a maximum sentence of 40 years.
Maxwell sipped water as Judge Alison Nathan read out the verdicts for each of the six counts. Later, when taken back to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where she has been held since mid 2020, Maxwell reportedly had difficulty standing.
Earlier fears that New York’s rapidly escalating Omicron outbreak would eventually affect the jury’s deliberations were not realised.
In a statement after the verdict, Mr Williams, the most powerful federal law enforcement official in Manhattan, said the “road to justice has been far too long, but today, justice has been done”.
“I want to commend the bravery of the girls – now grown women – who stepped out of the shadows and into the courtroom. Their courage and willingness to face their abuser made this case, and today’s result, possible,” Mr Williams said.
While Maxwell has always proclaimed her innocence, attention will now inevitably turn to Maxwell and Epstein’s friend Prince Andrew, and the civil suit alleging sexual abuse brought against him by Roberts Giuffre.
Roberts Giuffre’s suit claims she was sexually abused by Prince Andrew on multiple occasions in 2001, when she was just 17. The alleged abuse took place at residences owned by Maxwell and Epstein, Giuffre has claimed.
The Prince has vehemently rejected the accusations, with his legal team earlier this week calling for the suit to be thrown out of court on the basis that Ms Roberts Giuffre’s primary place of residence is Australia, not the US.
On Wednesday, US District Judges Lewis Kaplan and Loretta Preska ordered that a 2009 settlement claim between Giuffre and Epstein be made public next week. Legal experts believe it could have a direct bearing on Giuffre’s lawsuit.
Maxwell’s sex-trafficking charge involved the accuser known only as Carolyn, who told the jury she was 13 when she was recruited by Maxwell to give Epstein sexualised massages for money.
She testified that Maxwell fondled her breasts and told her she “had a great body for Epstein and his friends”.
Maxwell was found not guilty on the second charge of enticement, which related to the accuser known only as Jane.
Jane testified she was first sexually abused by Epstein in 1994 when she was 14, and that Maxwell participated in some of their encounters.
A former boyfriend of Jane’s testified that Epstein had assisted Jane’s family financially but she had to do things in exchange for money.
Maxwell, the daughter of former British newspaper baron Robert Maxwell, did not testify, but in an earlier statement to the court said prosecutors had failed to prove her guilt.
Maxwell’s lawyers argued she has been wrongly targeted as a scapegoat for Epstein, whose 2019 death in a Manhattan jail cell was ruled a suicide.
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