Girl with Andrew at Epstein home is daughter of Australian ex-PM
... and she’s also friends with Eugenie – and Meghan’s pal
THE daughter of a former Australian prime minister was identified yesterday as the mystery brunette with Prince Andrew in a video.
The prince was seen waving to Katherine Keating, 37, at the door of the mansion of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The footage was taken at the Manhattan townhouse in December 2010 – after paedophile Epstein had been placed on the child sex offenders register.
A source told the Daily Mail last night that Miss Keating had been ‘deeply upset’ at the speculation the video had prompted, explaining through a source that she had simply been visiting Andrew for tea.
The footage has raised fresh questions about the prince’s judgment, given his apparent willingness to associate himself with a convicted paedophile at the house where some of his crimes were alleged to have taken place.
Miss Keating was one of a number of young women photographed leaving or entering the mansion.
But sources insisted Miss Keating – whose father Paul Keating was Australian prime minister from 1991 to 1996 – did not meet Epstein during the visit. They said she was a ‘family friend’ of Andrew, his ex-wife Sarah and their daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie. At the time of the video she had recently moved to New York.
‘The duke invited her for a cup of tea as he was in the city and she stayed at the house for around 45 minutes and then left. She did not see Epstein while she was there,’ a source said. ‘The current speculation is deeply upsetting for her.’
The source did not deny that Miss Keating knew Epstein but stressed that she visited the house that day to see the duke and did not meet anyone else.
Her friendship with Andrew is not Miss Keating’s only tie to the Epstein scandal. She is known to be close friends with Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite accused in court papers of recruiting underage girls for the paedophile – which she denies.
They have been photographed together several times, with Miss Keating giving a speech at a party Miss Maxwell threw in New York in 2013. Miss Maxwell, who rarely gives interviews, also chose Miss Keating to help her break her
‘Invited her for a cup of tea’
silence. She gave a video interview to the Australian socialite in 2014, in which she discussed the work of her now- defunct charity, TerraMar.
The piece was published as part of a series of interviews Miss Keating has produced under the banner One On One, which also featured on the Huffington Post website.
In it, Miss Maxwell is shown tousling her hair and smiling coquettishly at the camera, as she asks Miss Keating lightheartedly: ‘Is my hair good?’
Miss Keating, who has a brother and two sisters, moved from Australia to New York in 2010. She and Miss Maxwell were part of the same party circuit, leading jet-set lifestyles.
In 2014 Miss Keating was pictured with Princess Eugenie and designer Misha Nonoo, a close friend of the Duchess of Sussex.
Miss Keating relocated to Los Angeles last year to take up a job as chief sustainability and strategy officer at Maverick, a talent management agency. Photos on her Instagram account – made private yesterday – show her New York apartment and her relaxing with her dog on hikes in the Hollywood Hills.
She now spends at least part of her time in a West Hollywood high-rise. She refused to speak to a reporter from the Mail there last week, responding that the journalist should leave the property. She put the phone down when asked about Miss Maxwell.
One resident of the building, who asked not to be named, confirmed they had seen Miss
‘Is my hair good?’
Maxwell inside in the past. There was no answer and the blinds were drawn at the £2million apartment in New York’s Chelsea district, where Miss Keating has previously lived.
A neighbour said she still lives in the first floor apartment but hasn’t been seen in a few weeks. Another said that she ‘travels a lot and comes in and out’.
The apartment is above the Lisson Gallery, a contemporary art space, and is over the road from The High Line, the elevated walkway that is a popular attraction with visitors to New York.