Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s ex-girlfriend who was jailed for child sex trafficking in 2021, has refused to apologize to her victims, saying they “should take their disappointment and upset out on the authorities” who allowed Epstein to die in prison, adding that she believed Epstein was murdered.
In a jailhouse interview with Daphne Barak on Britain’s TalkTV, titled Jeremy Kyle Live: Ghislaine Behind Bars, Maxwell, who is serving 20 years for her role in grooming young women and girls for Epstein to abuse, also said that she believed Prince Andrew never met Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre and that a famous photo of Andrew with his arm around Giuffre’s bare midriff, taken when she was 17, is a “fake.”
Andrew paid a multi-million settlement to Giuffre to settle her claims out of court without admitting guilt. He is reportedly mulling a bid to reopen the case and overturn the settlement.
ADVERTISEMENT
Maxwell notably refused to offer an apology to her victims in the interview. When asked what she would say to them, she responded, “I say Epstein has died and they should take their disappointment and upset out on the authorities that allowed that to happen.
“And, as I said, I hope that they have some closure via the judicial process that took place.
“And I wish them, er... time is ticking on to be able to have a productive and good life going forward. And that’s what I hope for them.”
Barak said in an interview that, because Maxwell was planning an appeal, she could not apologize as it would be tantamount to admitting her guilt.
Asked about the infamous photo of her, Andrew, and Virginia Giuffre, she said: “Well, It’s a fake. I don’t believe it’s real for a second. In fact, I’m sure it’s not… There’s never been an original… there's no photograph, I’ve only ever seen a photocopy of it.”
Maxwell, who is being held in the Federal Correctional Institute Tallahassee in Florida, told Barak the biggest misconception about her was that she was the “cruelest, meanest, most poisonous person.”
She also questioned Giuffre’s account of the night in question with Prince Andrew and the clothes she was wearing in the picture. She said, “I don’t believe it happened, certainly the way as described. It would have been impossible. I don’t have any memory of going to [the London nightclub] Tramp. Certainly, it’s not an outfit I would have worn.
“Her stories have changed so many times, about what happens, when it happens, how it happens with different versions… Each time she speaks there's a different version. In fact, if you look at her BBC interview, on Panorama, I believe she said... he puked on her face. That’s the only time she ever said that.”
Giuffre has accused Maxwell of recruiting her for Epstein’s sex ring when she was a teenage staffer at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and claimed Epstein and Maxwell trafficked her to powerful men. In 2015, Giuffre filed a defamation case against Maxwell, which was settled in 2017; thousands of documents from that case have since been made public, revealing sordid accusations against Prince Andrew, former politicians, and high-flying financiers. (The accused men have vehemently denied Giuffre’s claims.)
On Epstein’s death in prison in 2019, which was ruled a suicide, Maxwell said, “I believe that he was murdered. I was shocked. Then I wondered how it had happened. Because… I was sure he was going to appeal.”
Speaking about her relationship with Epstein, Maxwell said, “I honestly wish I had never met him… Looking back now, I probably wish I had stayed in England. But leaving that aside, you know I tried to leave and start another new job and move on from the end of '98, '99. So, I wish I had been more successful in moving on… Because I’d been a banker and so I should have moved on completely.”
She added that she had no reason to doubt Epstein, saying, “I didn’t know that he was so awful. I mean obviously now, looking back with hindsight, of course. But at the time, I mean, he had lots of friends. He was friendly with just about everybody you could imagine.”
Describing her prison routine, Maxwell said, “They wake you up at 6 a.m. And you can go to breakfast, which consists of cereal and fruit, a piece of fruit, generally. And then you have to make your bed in military style so there is nothing that’s sticking out. It has to be a prescribed way, otherwise you can get into trouble.”
She said she struggled to eat well as a vegetarian, saying, “The portion control is very odd. And when like me you’re on a no-meat diet, you’re supposed to have either hummus or cottage cheese or tofu for you but most of the time, I’d say about 95 percent, it’s tofu if it’s anything or beans. 95 percent, it’s beans or otherwise you have a tofu substitute. And then the tofu has no seasoning, there’s no seasoning allowed. No salt or pepper or anything. So it's beyond tasteless.”
Attorney Lisa Bloom described the interview as “another punch in the gut” for her victims and said they were “glad Ghislaine was where she should be; in prison.” She said that the odds of Andrew being able to overturn his settlement “were between no way no how.”
She added it was not “particularly helpful” to Andrew that his only “public advocate” was a “convicted sex trafficker serving 20 years.”
