Defiant Ghislaine Maxwell has rounded on her accusers, insisting that her portrayal as a ‘cartoon caricature of a villain’ is utterly false.
Friends say that the 58-year-old socialite, who is scheduled to appear before a judge in New York on Tuesday to be formally charged with procuring girls as young as 14 for Jeffrey Epstein – the serial paedophile and her former boyfriend – ‘is no Cruella de Vil’.
Referring to the glamorous but evil character from the Disney film One Hundred And One Dalmatians, one friend told The Mail on Sunday: ‘This cartoon caricature of a villain she is being painted as is utterly untrue and false.
'This is a real human being with real feelings.’
Breaking a year-long silence since Epstein’s death, sources close to Maxwell have gone on the offensive to put her side of the story.
After a year during which she was neither seen nor heard, her allies now reveal how she intends to salvage her liberty and reputation against claims that she supplied depraved Epstein with young girls.
Maxwell’s allies have told The Mail on Sunday that she:
* Is not the person who introduced billionaire Epstein to Prince Andrew;
* Fears dying of Covid-19 while in prison;
* Insists she and Epstein had not met in person for 15 years;
* Weeps over friends who have lost jobs because of their association with her;
* Has not had a haircut in a year and is being moved ‘from cell-to-cell’ for her own safety.
The daughter of the late newspaper tycoon Robert Maxwell will make global headlines on Tuesday when she appears in court via remote link from her New York jail cell.
She will be formally charged with sex offences between 1994 and 1997 and will plead not guilty to them all. Her lawyers will argue for her release from the high-security Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn on £4 million bail, arguing that her life is in danger from coronavirus and ‘multiple and credible’ death threats.
Maxwell, who is a long-time friend of Prince Andrew and who saw him most recently in 2019, was arrested at her £800,000 New Hampshire hideaway on July 2.
Prosecutor Audrey Strauss condemned her as ‘playing a critical role in finding and grooming victims’, while scores of Epstein’s victims claim that she acted as his ‘madam’, often driving from his £20 million mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, to nearby trailer parks to ‘procure’ vulnerable young girls for the paedophile.
But last night a source close to Maxwell hit back, saying: ‘Ghislaine is no Cruella de Vil. She is being portrayed as this evil character and a cartoon-like villain but she is nothing like that. She is a real person and is determined to prove her innocence despite the fact that she has been characterised as some sort of monster.’
Maxwell insists that her romance with Epstein ended in 2001 and that she did not see him in person after 2005 when she was photographed with him at a party.
At the time, she was dating billionaire Gateway computer founder Ted Waitt.
‘The reality is that Ghislaine’s relationship with Epstein ended in 2001,’ says the friend. ‘Starting in late 2002, early 2003, she was dating Ted and she loved him deeply. Epstein kept trying to woo her back but she wasn’t interested.’
However, the friend adds, Maxwell continued to work for the twisted tycoon. ‘She hired Epstein’s pool guys, the IT guys.
‘She managed his household. They weren’t that close. It was a professional relationship.’
When Epstein negotiated an infamous plea deal, pleading guilty to two child sex prostitution charges in 2008 and serving just 13 months in prison – most on day release – Maxwell did not visit him in jail, friends insist.
Bail documents filed by Maxwell’s lawyers last week reveal that she believes she is covered by a clause in that plea deal that protects any ‘potential co-conspirators’ from prosecution.
The friend says: ‘Ghislaine never visited him in jail. People say the reason she did all these terrible things was for money, that she was a poor as a church mouse, but that’s not true. She was with Ted until 2011 and he’s worth three times what Epstein was worth.’
Maxwell also denies that she introduced her close friend Prince Andrew to Epstein, something her friends say ‘has been written in stone but is plain wrong’.... (Read more)
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