Supermodel Naomi Campbell says that while she knew Jeffrey Epstein, she knew nothing of his “indefensible” crimes.
Campbell addressed her ties to Epstein in a strange video she released in response to a Mail on Sunday article that questioned why she was receiving a humanitarian award when she has “rubbed shoulders” with people like the accused sex trafficker.
The 49-year-old fashion star said she was introduced to the financier on her 31st birthday by her then-boyfriend, Italian businessman Flavio Briatore, who threw a party for her on a yacht.
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In addition, she said, “He was always front and center at Victoria’s Secret fashion shows.” Campbell, of course, walked the runway for the lingerie company, which was owned by Epstein client Les Wexner.
After Epstein’s arrest on federal trafficking charges in July and his jailhouse suicide earlier this month, Campbell’s links to him drew renewed scrutiny.
Photos surfaced that showed a teenage Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who says she was forced to be Epstein’s sex slave, at the model’s birthday party, which Epstein and his close friend Ghislaine Maxwell also attended.
Giuffre mentioned the party and Campbell in a deposition that was unsealed two weeks ago. And Campbell also shows up as a passenger in flight logs for Epstein’s private plane.
In addition, Campbell appears in a cached version of the website for MC2 Models, the agency founded by close Epstein associate and accused sexual predator Jean-Luc Brunel.
Campbell didn’t discuss any of that in the video she posted to YouTube—which showed her answering questions from a faceless interviewer, as though she was on a real TV program.
“I’ve always said I am not a saint. I’m a work in progress. But I will not be held hostage by my past,” she said of the article, which detailed her link to Liberian warlord Charles Taylor and alleged serial rapist Harvey Weinstein.
As for Epstein, Campbell said when she heard the allegations against him, “it sickened me to my stomach, just like everybody else.”
“I’ve had my fair share of sexual predators and thank God I had good people around who protected me from this,” she said. “I stand with the victims. They are scarred for life.”
