Maxwell: I’m no Cruella de Vil
● Close friend speaks out as Ghislaine goes on the attack ● Claims she DIDN’T introduce Duke to Epstein ● And she last met paedophile 15 years ago
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 t he t i me, 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’.
In fact, friends claim the introduction was made by glamorous socialite Lynn Forester de Rothschild in 1999 at a birthday party she threw for her British billionaire husband, Sir Evelyn de Roths chil d, in t he Hamptons, t he exclusive beach resort outside New York. ‘ Ghislaine wasn’t at that
‘She is being portrayed as evil… a cartoon-like villain’
party. Lynn introduced Andrew to Epstein,’ says the friend. ‘ It was all about the money with Andrew and Epstein.
Just wait and see. There is a lot more to come out.’ In a 26-page court document filed in New York on Friday, Maxwell’s lawyers say her life is at risk in jail. It says: ‘The open season declared on Ms Maxwell after Epstein’s death has come with an even darker cost – she has been t he t arget of alarming physical threats, even death threats.’
Noting a recent outbreak of Covid19 at the prison which has struck down more than 50 prisoners and staff, the document adds: ‘Ms Maxwell is at significant risk of contracting Covid-19 if she is detained and she will not be able to meaningfully participate in her defence.’
Calls to Maxwell from lawyers and friends have ‘taken hours’ to reach her, it continues.
Friends say that Ms Maxwell adopted a cat and puppy during the year after Epstein’s suicide when she disappeared from public view. ‘She wasn’t on the run. Her team were in constant touch with her and in constant touch with authorities,’ the friend insists.
‘She was keeping a low-profile because every friend who is associated with her has been hurt. People have lost jobs, their kids have been bullied. That’s what hurts her the most. She doesn’t cry for herself but when her innocent friends are condemned merely by association with her, that breaks her heart.
‘Her family, her sisters and brothers are 100 per cent loyal. She is speaking only to family and her
‘She won’t flee – she wants her day in court’
legal team. She became a recluse because it was too painful to watch those she loved suffer.
‘She is a kind person who loves animals. She’s adopted a cat and a mutt during the last year. She is a loving, kind person who has done none of the things she has been charged with.’
The words will enrage Maxwell’s many accusers and some will view the intervention of her friends as a cynical move. One of Epstein’s alleged victims, Virginia Roberts, has accused Maxwell of being ‘worse than Jeffrey’ and claims she used her English accent and charm to ‘ensnare’ vulnerable girls.
But sources close to Maxwell are critical of investigators. ‘ Ghislaine’s legal team called the day after Epstein was arrested offering to co-operate fully,’ claims one.
‘ Their calls were repeatedly ignored. She has never sought to flee. She wants her day in court. Her reputation is destroyed but she is determined to prove her innocence.’
In the bail documents, lawyers for Maxwell insist that‘ had the government alerted her counsel that she was about to be arrested, we would have arranged for Ms Maxwell’s prompt, voluntary surrender.
‘Instead, the government arrested Ms Maxwell without warning... thus ensuring that she would be in federal custody on the one-year anniversary of Epstein’s arrest’.