How Ghislaine Maxwell’s glittering socialite life unravelled
The favourite daughter of disgraced tycoon Robert Maxwell, Ghislaine lived the life of Gatsby. How did she fall so hard?
Back in the 1990s, socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was known in New York as the “female Gatsby” for her lavish entertaining. She had a reputation for being charming and funny, and hers was a glittering lifestyle straight out of the pages of a society magazine. She would attend cocktail parties with A-listers, drop in at celebrity fundraisers, ski at Aspen and jet around the world, largely at other people’s expense.
Today, that life has been consigned to her diary entries. She is behind bars. Arrested in New Hampshire on sex trafficking and perjury charges, she has been transferred to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn and will appear in court in the coming days.
What led her here?
The daughter of disgraced media tycoon Robert Maxwell, Ghislaine was his ninth and youngest child, widely thought to be his favourite. Unlike her siblings, she wasn’t picked on by her father. She was showered with affection and he even named the luxury 180ft yacht from which he disappeared overboard in 1991 the Lady Ghislaine.
After attending Marlborough, she went to Balliol College, Oxford, and gained a reputation for knowing all the right people, including Hugh Grant. She belonged to a group of socialites attracted to rich magnates rather than aristocrats with titles but no money.
Hers was a student life of wealth and privilege. On one occasion, her father sent a Daimler full of Filipino servants to the house she shared in Oxford to tidy up, lay the table and put dinner in the oven for a party she was giving.
When she left in 1985, this Daddy’s girl was made a director of his football team, Oxford United, and later, when he bought the New York Daily News, she was put in charge of “special projects”. Her father also lent his help in running her company, Maxwell Corporate Gifts, while she entertained male friends for lunch in a private dining room in the Mirror Group buildings.
When her father died, his publishing empire collapsed after it was found that he had been pillaging the pension fund to prop up his businesses. However, a trust fund provided an income of £80,000 ($145,000) a year for Ghislaine and she moved to New York, renting a £1500-a-month apartment on the Upper East Side.
She lived the high life, with a chauffeur-driven Mercedes, Dolce & Gabbana dresses, Jimmy Choo shoes and Fendi handbags. Ghislaine was never more at home than with the super-rich, bumming a ride on Donald Trump’s private jet and dating billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein.
She “never, ever had any cash. Lots of credit, of course, but no cash”, one friend recalled.
Another American acquaintance says: “Men were drawn to her because she manages to make them feel sexy and fascinating. She’s an outrageous flirt and fascinated by dodgy, powerful men. It’s all part of her Electra complex.” This manifested itself in her relationship with Epstein.
“Ghislaine was in love with Jeffrey the way she was in love with her father. She always thought if she just did one more thing for him, to please him, he would marry her,” a source told Vanity Fair. Marriage didn’t happen, but she was always by his side, choreographing his world.
“My job included hiring many people,” she said in a court deposition in 2017. “There were six homes. I hired assistants, architects, decorators, cooks, cleaners, gardeners, pool people, pilots. I hired all sorts of people. A very small part of my job was to find adult professional massage therapists for Jeffrey. As far as I’m concerned, everyone who came to his house was an adult professional person.”
While denying that there was anything inappropriate, she admitted hiring masseuses as young as 17. One of them was Virginia Roberts — now Virginia Giuffre — one of her principal accusers who claims she was 15 when recruited.
This week Maxwell, 58, was indicted on the serious offences of enticing minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts. Audrey Strauss, the acting US Attorney, said: “As alleged, Ghislaine Maxwell facilitated, aided, and participated in acts of sexual abuse of minors. Maxwell enticed minor girls, got them to trust her, and then delivered them into the trap that she and Jeffrey Epstein had set … All the while, she was setting them up to be abused sexually by Epstein and, in some cases, Maxwell herself.”
A source close to Ghislaine said in the Vanity Fair article: “When I asked what she thought of the underage girls, she looked at me and said, ‘They’re nothing, these girls. They are trash’.”
It is no surprise she could have held such views. With the spectre of her father looming large, she was driven to respect only high status and wealth. As Epstein’s fixer and confidante, Ghislaine was used to mixing with presidents, movie stars and moguls. Among this circle, royalty was specially prized, which is why a friendship with Prince Andrew became so treasured.
Ghislaine had known the Prince casually since she was a student but was reintroduced to him by old chum Sarah Ferguson and he became a regular guest at the dinner parties she laid on at Epstein’s New York home.
In February 2000, they holidayed together at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s residence in Palm Beach, 2.5km from Epstein’s Florida home. Ghislaine and Andrew weren’t romantically linked at this time but her friend, Laura Goldman, claimed in The Telegraph last week that the now 60-year-old royal and socialite did once have a “fling”and that, for this reason, she would “never sell out” the royal.
“The only way she can walk is if she gives someone up, but that definitely won’t be Andrew,” said Goldman.
“She is so appreciative that when she first came to New York, the Duke helped to launch her into high society. She always talks about what a true friend he is. She doesn’t see any reason to speak about him to the authorities.”
Ghislaine got the opportunity to take Epstein with her when she attended royal events. In October 2000, the three of them were seen at Victoria’s Secret model Heidi Klum’s “pimps and hookers” party in an upscale New York nightclub. Their friendship endured even after Epstein was disgraced.
Things started to unravel for Ghislaine in 2005, when under-age girls accused Epstein of paying them to perform sexual acts. In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to felony prostitution charges in a sweetheart plea bargain where co-conspirators were given immunity from prosecution and the court papers were sealed. He was sentenced to 18 months in a private wing of the Palm Beach County Stockade. After that, Ghislaine and Epstein were no longer seen together and she withdrew from society.
In 2015, Giuffre filed an affidavit alleging Ghislaine had worked as Epstein’s procurer and, with Epstein, trafficked her to Prince Andrew. She provided the now famous photograph of her with Andrew and Ghislaine in Maxwell’s Belgravia home.
Giuffre said it had been taken by Epstein. Ghislaine said she was a liar. Giuffre sued her for defamation in federal court. The matter was settled in 2017 for an undisclosed sum. Again, the papers were sealed.
But even the rich are not beyond the law. On July 2 last year, federal authorities in Manhattan ruled that any sweetheart deal made in Florida did not apply in New York and unsealed the documents from 2008. Epstein was arrested.
Ghislaine fought to keep the court papers from the 2017 defamation case closed — and failed. On August 9, the first batch was released. The following day, Epstein was found dead in jail, presumed suicide, and Ghislaine vanished. Her lawyers refused to accept suits served on her, claiming not to know where she was.
Reporters scoured the globe. Some said she was in Russia. Others pointed to Israel or Brazil. On August 12, she was apparently photographed eating a burger and fries in Los Angeles, although her friends said Ghislaine was on a permanent diet and would not be seen dead eating fast food.
Now we know she was living in a beautiful property in Bradford, New Hampshire. Federal prosecutors said the 63ha estate was bought for $US1m in cash through a limited liability company.
On Thursday, Maxwell was finally arrested and charged with six federal crimes. She has been transferred to New York to stand trial and will be appearing in court either later this week or early next. If found guilty she faces more than 30 years in jail.
By accident or intention, Robert Maxwell escaped the law. It seems questionable that his daughter will do so — despite her rich and powerful friends who may quickly forget they ever knew her.
Edited extract from Prince Andrew: Epstein and the Palace, by Nigel Cawthorne (Gibson Square), $34.99, at booktopia $26.80.
