Ghislaine Maxwell's untold story
When the helicopter landed on the roof of the Mirror Group Newspapers building on Holborn Circus, the noise was deafening, and you knew that Robert Maxwell, the proprietor of the vast media empire, had arrived at his London office. When they reported his death, a silence fell over the newsroom.
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, as Ghislaine Maxwell sits in a New York jail awaiting trial for her nefarious involvement in the Jeffery Epstein sex ring. Her story has unravelled in a similar way to her father’s.
When Maxwell dominated, Fleet Street stories abounded about his greed, grandeur and gluttony. He ate vats of Russian caviar, and at a formal dinner, staff poured one type of wine for his guests while Maxwell drank a superior vintage. Ghislaine seems to have swallowed the same Grand cru, believing her wealth, fame, contacts and privilege entitled her to live above the law.
There is lots to speculate about why she followed so closely in Cap’n Bob’s footsteps, especially regarding her long entanglement with a man as shady as her father.
Ghislaine, like her father, is a larger-than-life personality. He was a bully who could be immensely charming. The first time I met the Bouncing Czech as Private Eye dubbed him, he boomed when the lift door opened and I appeared, “you’re so beautiful”. His flattery didn’t sway me, but it was easy to see how it could. His daughter was in awe of him and spent her life trying to win his approval.
Maxwell pere could be extremely loving, warm and affectionate and you see that same warmth between Epstein and Ghislaine in their photos. Still, parents probably influence our moral compass most, and while most of us would have been horrified by Maxwell’s antics, it might have normalised misconduct for her. Their wealth insulated them until the £400 million hole in the MGN pension fund that was discovered.
When she gravitated to Epstein after her father’s death, she seemed to lean toward the familiar. Ghislaine liked powerful men, she craved their validation, and she wanted rich men. All those trappings disappeared after the MGN empire fell apart. These men could do anything regardless of the rules. The fear of losing everything again, including Epstein’s devotion, ensured that she did everything to she could to protect herself.
Ghislaine ensured that she satisfied Epstein. Could her capitulation be linked to her father’s domineering personality— which isn’t to take away her responsibility. She had agency and could have walked away from Epstein.
She lived in a bubble, and in an exclusive, affluent and privileged circle, one in which people can easily lose touch with reality. From what we know, Ghislaine doesn’t seem to have had much empathy for other people’s experiences and lives, and like her father, she was charming and seductive. Prince Andrew has her unwavering support. She says she will never betray him. But with a narcissist, there is always a chance of a sudden reversal, when they reveal their true, ruthless self.
Robert Maxwell and Jeffery Epstein operated in ways that were morally reprehensible, and both used people as a means to an end. They used Ghislaine, and she used everyone else.
Did Ghislaine have daddy issues? What do we mean by that? We’re not rooting around Robert Maxwell’s background or Jeffery Epstein’s history to see what their relationship was like with their mothers or looking for hypotheses to determine why they turned out the way they did. Nobody is writing articles about why Epstein liked underage girls. We just concluded that Epstein was a depraved asshole. At the same time, we look for causes for Ghislaine’s misconduct, and in fact, never mention her relationship with her mother who was a noted Holocaust scholar.
We are still trying to work out what happened to the publishing tycoon’s money that disappeared, and the mystery of how Epstein made his money remains murky. Maybe Ghislaine will be able to unpick some of that as-yet untold story.
