The daddy’s girl who lived it up with a monster
By the time of Epstein’s death, she had been accused of trafficking girls for sex
SHE was always Daddy’s little girl: Robert Maxwell’s youngest – and favourite – daughter.
He dreamt she was his ticket to high society, a potential future wife for JFK Jnr, his right-hand woman for his business empire.
Ghislaine was educated at exclusive Marlborough College and the University of Oxford, and grew up playing with “Bob’s toys” – helicopters and privates jets.
Later, she was given directorships at her father’s companies and was even immortalised on his yacht, Lady Ghislaine.
It was on that very yacht, in the Canaries in November 1991, that Ghislaine, then 30, lost her anchor.
Her by-then disgraced father’s body had been found floating in those waters. His abuse of the Mirror Newspapers Pension fund and his rapidly diminishing wealth was presumed to have driven him to apparent suicide.
Ghislaine saw it differently. “I think he was murdered,” she said.
Soon she was flaunting the last of the Maxwell wealth, flying by Concorde for a new start in the US.
A year into her time as a New York socialite she found a new man with whom to live the high life: Jeffrey
Epstein, then 38. Ghislaine’s early life was gilded but not without tragedy.
Robert and wife Elisabeth lived in a 53-room mansion in Oxford, where Ghislaine was the youngest of nine children. Just two days before her birth in 1961, Ghislaine’s brother Michael, 15, had a car accident that claimed his life.
Her friend, JFK Jnr, and first love, Count Gianfranco Cicogna, both died in plane crashes. But Epstein would be her undoing.
Early on they were said to be dating, and some friends said she wanted marriage.
But by the time he was profiled in Vanity Fair in
2004 he was calling her his “best friend”.
Some people claimed it was a convenient affair, with her needing his money, and he her connections – including the likes of Prince Andrew. One friend said she was at first “devoted” to Epstein. Soon she earned a darker title: his fixer.
By the time of Epstein’s death she had been named in lawsuits, with allegations she was sextrafficking young women to him.
Others claimed she lured them with job promises, only for them to be coerced into sex acts with Epstein and sometimes her. Many cases were settled out of court, while others continue. She has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
Ghislaine with dad Robert & mum Elisabeth