From Florida prison where she is serving 20 years, sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, 60, pays tribute to her 'dear friend' Prince Andrew and breaks silence on whether she expects to hear from him again, jail plots to KILL her and claims THAT photo is fake
Ghislaine Maxwell, jailed for child sex-trafficking offences, has spoken about her 'dear friend' Prince Andrew
Speaking from prison, she says she 'feels so bad' for the Duke of York for his association with Jeffrey Epstein
Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year sentence for helping disgraced financier Epstein to abuse women
She also revealed that she believes the notorious photograph of Andrew with Virginia Roberts, then 17, is fake
Maxwell later spoke out about her shock at Epstein's death in August 2019, saying 'I just find it suspicious'
By DAPHNE BARAK, AUTHOR AND FILM MAKER, FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY
PUBLISHED: 22:00 BST, 15 October 202
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Her little black book was once crammed with the names of presidents, powerbrokers, movie stars and royalty. But none was more important than Prince Andrew.
Today, in an extraordinary interview from behind prison walls, Ghislaine Maxwell speaks for the first time about her 'dear friend', expressing heartfelt sadness at his own catastrophic fall from grace.
'Yes, I follow what is happening to him,' Maxwell confirms. 'He is paying such a price for the association with Jeffrey Epstein. I care about him, and I feel so bad for him.'
It is rare for American prison authorities to authorise interviews – especially when the profile of the inmate is so high.
But I spoke to 60-year-old Maxwell face-to-face inside the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn, New York during the summer, and again just a few weeks ago after she was moved to her current jail, Tallahassee's Federal Correctional Institute.
This is where she will serve a 20-year sentence for her role in helping Epstein to abuse young women.
I ask her about one of the most notorious photographs in the world – one which has haunted Prince Andrew.
It shows the Prince with his hand around the waist of a then 17-year-old Virginia Roberts – now Giuffre – with Maxwell beaming to one side. The man behind the camera, clicking the shutter, is disgraced financier and paedophile Epstein.
Andrew has insisted that the photo has in some way been doctored. Maxwell, too, believes the picture must be fake – despite experts, commentators and Ms Giuffre herself maintaining the picture is real and unaltered. Whether the Duke of York will thank Maxwell for her intervention on the issue is hard to say.
Maxwell, pictured with Epstein in New York in 2005, spoke exclusively from behind prison walls for the first time, revealing that she believes the financier's death was 'suspicious'Where her company was once eagerly sought by leading figures in society, Maxwell – a convicted sex offender – is now little short of a pariah. It is something she herself acknowledges, and articulates well, pointing out that any association with her name is, at best, a black mark. At worst, she says, it has turned her into a 'wicked witch'.
'There are many people who have been impacted by this story who have been cancelled, some friends of mine who never even met Epstein lost their jobs,' she acknowledges. 'People who literally had nothing to do with him whatsoever have been cancelled.
'So I think for all those people, including some of them who never met him, it's been a very heavy price that has been paid due to the cancel culture. So, you know, from that perspective, I think it's been very difficult for a lot of people.'
No more so than for 62-year-old Prince Andrew, of course, who had once been a regular companion.
When I point out the Prince's lawyers reject the suggestion that Maxwell and Andrew were close, she accepts it with equanimity. 'I accept that this friendship could not survive my conviction,' she says.
She spoke about how people who 'had nothing to do' with Epstein have since been 'cancelled' because of their association with her
60-year-old Maxwell was interviewed in the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn, New York during the summer, and again just a few weeks ago after she was moved to her current jail, Tallahassee's Federal Correctional Institute
Significantly, in Andrew's disastrous Panorama interview with Emily Maitlis, he appeared to pin the blame for his troubles on Maxwell. He claimed he had no knowledge that Epstein had been charged with sex offences when he invited the American tycoon to Windsor Castle – with Maxwell – in 2006.
Andrew said: 'Remember it was his girlfriend that was the key element in this. [Epstein] was the, as it were, plus one.'
Following the interview in November 2019, Andrew was forced to step down from public royal duties.
Is there any chance that Andrew could open his arms once more and ask her to be friends? 'I don't have an expectation,' she says. 'People who I have been friends with – and very close friends with – whoever they may be, well, I can't think about what they will want to do or not do. I can only control what I do.'
In February, despite continuing denials, Andrew paid Ms Giuffre, now 38, a financial settlement reported to be in the region of £12 million to settle out of court a civil claim she had brought against him in the US.
Maxwell is similarly sanguine about other friendships that she knows she has lost, among them Bill Clinton, one of the many prominent names linked to Epstein in recent years.
At Maxwell's sex-trafficking trial last year, Epstein's former pilot testified that he had taken the former US President, alongside Prince Andrew and Donald Trump, to VIP locations all over the world on the financier's private jet.
'It was a special friendship, which continued over the years,' Maxwell says of her association with Clinton. 'Until...' she tails off – a sentence there is no need for her to finish.
'We had lots in common. I feel bad that he is another victim, only because of his association with Jeffrey. I understand that he, like others, can no longer consider me as a friend.'
One of the few who did speak out in her defence was Trump, in whose circles Maxwell regularly mingled. Following her 2020 arrest, the former US President was one of the few to wish her well publicly, something for which he was roundly criticised.
'He dared, while others didn't,' is how she puts it today. 'I was very touched that he would remember me and that he would wish me well. And I was very touched by his remembrance of me.'
She adds: 'I think anybody who says anything remotely, either positive and/or generous about me seems to attract a lot of negative interest.
'And in fact, President Trump is famous for thinking and saying what is on his mind like whenever he says it. So I was just very touched, as I said. I appreciate it. It gave me a big boost during such a time.'
I point out that it's extraordinary that everything that has happened to her in recent years is a direct consequence of meeting one man. Does she regret it?
'I said in open court in my statement that meeting Jeffrey Epstein was the greatest mistake of my life,' she says. 'And obviously, if I could go back today and I would avoid meeting him, and I would say that would be the greatest mistake I've ever made, and I would make different choices for where I would work. Obviously.
'I think there are many women who can identify with my story. Many have either fallen in love with or had relationships with men that in hindsight they look back on and say 'What was I thinking?' I imagine there's not a woman on the planet who would not think that about one or other of their boyfriends.'
What of the reports claiming that she and Epstein were more than friends? 'I have read and seen and heard and had reported to me so many monstrous inaccuracies that I can't even start to pick apart all of them,' she replies.
Questioned on when she started to feel uncomfortable about Epstein's proclivities, Maxwell clams up, saying only that she suspects that she 'started to feel that way after he got into trouble' in 2006, when he was indicted by the FBI for dozens of offences involving underage girls.
Under a subsequent plea deal, he served just 13 months in a county jail.
'There were things to mention here about him that I cannot discuss because of the appeal, but I can't say anything more than that,' is all she will say on the matter.
Maxwell continues to maintain her innocence even in the face of her conviction, arguing that she was effectively demonised before she had even stood trial.
'I think the adage 'innocent until proven guilty' should apply,' she says emphatically.
'And one of the things that is so shocking, the difference between America and England is quite dramatic.
'In England, when you have an active case, there is no pretrial publicity that's allowed, which I think is essential.
'Here in America, you're just swamped with appalling press when you are indicted and you have no right to speak.'
As a result, she has been portrayed as the 'Wicked Witch' in the Epstein story.
'All this is a fictional version of me,' she says. 'It has been created to fit the storyline. It has nothing to do with who I am.
'So many people contribute to the fake, created version, like a Disney character, the Wicked Witch if you will.'
Epstein, of course, never faced the charges which have brought down his former associate, following his August 2019 death in the Manhattan jail where he was awaiting sex trafficking charges.
At the time, Maxwell was still a free woman, although that would not last much longer: she was arrested eleven months later.
Ghislaine Maxwell claims Mail on Sunday photo of Prince Andrew and 17-year-old Virginia Roberts is fake - but won't say why
It is one of the most notorious pictures in the world – and one that has haunted the Royal who stands at its centre.
Taken late in the evening of March 10, 2001, it shows Prince Andrew with his hand around the waist of a then 17-year-old Virginia Roberts – now Giuffre – with Ghislaine Maxwell beaming to one side.
The man behind the camera is disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. That photo – which was first published by The Mail on Sunday on February 27, 2011 – came to symbolise Mrs Giuffre's case that, having been trafficked to the UK by Epstein, she had been sexually abused by Andrew on three occasions.
The Duke of York has always vigorously denied the allegations and continues to do so, insisting the photo with which he is intimately associated has in some way been doctored.
Now, in a remarkable first interview from prison, Maxwell, 60, Andrew's once-close friend, is attempting to come to his aid, insisting that she, too, believes the picture is a fake. 'At this time, I no longer believe that to be a true image, and I don't believe that it is what it appears to be,' she says.
It is a brave statement, and at odds with what most experts, commentators and Mrs Giuffre herself say. But Maxwell seems convinced. 'There are so many things that are wrong with it,' she says. 'As soon as my appeal is over, I will be very happy to discuss it with you.'
Maxwell's claims about the image, above, are intriguing, not least because they appear to contradict her 2015 reply to an email sent to her by Alan Dershowitz, one of the most highprofile lawyers in the United States.
In the message, Dershowitz wrote: 'Dear G. Do you know whether the photo of Andrew and Virginia is real? You are in the background.' Just 11 minutes later, Maxwell emailed back her response. 'It looks real. I think it is.'
But she says now: 'If you see a photograph and it's a photograph of you in your home, and someone says to you, 'Is that a picture of you?' you don't question it.
It would never occur to me that somebody would have created a photograph or, you know, done something with a picture. 'I recognised the surroundings of that photograph, nothing more than that.'
Given the chance of closer scrutiny, however, she says she now believes there are all manner of issues with the image. 'I don't know exactly how many points there are, but there are over 50 problems with the picture,' she insists.
'So I don't believe it's a true picture.' Mrs Giuffre said in legal documents for a 2016 defamation case that she had handed the original image to the FBI in 2011 when they visited her home in Australia, where she then lived.
It is not clear if the original was returned and she has said it might be in storage. According to documents released in the same case, two FBI agents collected 20 original photographs from Giuffre, which were understood to include the one of her with Andrew.
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