Ghislaine Maxwell, sentenced in June to twenty years in prison for sex trafficking of minors, said in an interview broadcast Monday that she would have liked "
never to have met
" Jeffrey Epstein, whom she says she is convinced "
he was murdered
".
The former British socialite was sentenced in June in New York for sex trafficking of minors on behalf of the deceased American financier, accused of sexual exploitation of dozens of minors.
“
I honestly wish I had never met him
,” she said of her former companion, in the interview given from his prison in the United States to the British channel TalkTV.
Convicted of murder
"
Clearly (...) the fact that I work with him and spend time with him and know him has destroyed my life and hurt a lot of people who are dear to me and whom I love
," he said. she asserted.
She stressed that she didn't '
know
' Epstein was '
that awful
' although '
obviously now, when you look back, of course it is
'.
The American financier, accused of having, between 2002 and 2005 at least, brought minor girls into his residences "
to engage in sexual acts with him
", was found hanged in his cell on August 10, 2019. autopsy confirms suicide by hanging, Ghislaine Maxwell says she is convinced “
that he was murdered
”.
Already on Sunday, excerpts from the interview had been published and Ghislaine Maxwell came to the defense of Prince Andrew, saying that a photo showing the brother of King Charles III with a young girl who later accused him of sexual assault was "
a fake
".
Read alsoNo royal return for Prince Andrew, implicated in the Epstein affair
American Virginia Giuffre, now 39, accuses the prince of sexually assaulting her three times in 2001, when she was 17.
She claimed to have met him through Epstein.
Andrew, friend of Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein, sealed an amicable agreement with her in February 2022, paying millions of dollars, which allowed him to avoid a civil lawsuit in New York, which would have been extremely embarrassing for the British royal family.
The 62-year-old prince, who fell out of favor after these accusations, has however always disputed the accusations.
According to British newspapers, he is now studying legal options to try to cancel the agreement with Virginia Giuffre.
