Ghislaine, a daddy’s girl who never escaped his toxic legacy
The first time I met Ghislaine Maxwell was back in the mideighties. She was the fabulously rich and sophisticated daughter of mighty media mogul Robert Maxwell, wafting in and out of the parties he held at his Mirror offices in London.
I was a humble executive on the launch of his newspaper The London Daily News. She flew in by private helicopter, I got the Tube. She was dripping in designer clothes and diamonds, I was draped in Topshop.
Only three years separated us, and I remember there was much to admire about her elegance, her sense of confidence and entitlement, and her extravagant bearing which was remarkable even during the hedonistic eighties.
Mostly when I encountered Ghislaine, she was always clinging adoringly to Daddy. No one quite knew what she actually did, except look gorgeous, be funny and adorn Daddy’s parties to which the rich and influential flocked like flies.
As we now know, her gift for graceful hosting and ingratiating herself with the wealthy and powerful would become her trademark and continue throughout her life.
‘Captain’ Bob Maxwell, paraded her like a prized possession. he creepily named his yacht after her — she was the youngest of his nine children. Never has the description daddy’s girl been more apposite. But then, he fell to his death off his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine, and it emerged his empire was built on smoke and mirrors and that he’d monstrously plundered the Mirror pension funds to fuel the lavish lifestyle to which a shattered Ghislaine had become accustomed.
Did that other monster, paedophile Jeffrey epstein, become her new father figure, showering her with the wealth she’d been taught by Captain Bob was her right? It’s emerged she had £18 million in 15 bank accounts.
Was this tainted money, and the status it bestowed, so important to her that she forwent all moral scruples, grooming girls for him to abuse in return for it and even taking part in the abuse herself?
Only time will tell whether the hideous charge sheet against her is true. But what we do know — and this is in no sense an attempt to exonerate her — is that daddy’s girl Ghislaine worshipped her lying, cheating, bullying psychopath of a father.
And that his grotesque influence could well explain why she became the world’s most hunted woman.