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Prince Andrew ignored Ghislaine Maxwell’s repeated pleas not to speak to the press about Jeffrey Epstein, one of her closest confidantes has revealed.
Laura Goldman, a New York stockbroker who has known Maxwell for several years, claims the socialite warned the Duke of York against discussing convicted paedophile Epstein publicly.
But he went ahead with his shambolic interview with Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis in November last year with the belief that he could win over the public, Ms Goldman claims.
After it was over, he reportedly told Maxwell: ‘Don’t worry, it’ll work out.’
Maxwell could face up to 35 years in prison for six charges of grooming and trafficking after officers swooped on her New Hampshire bolthole on Thursday.
Prince Andrew ignored Ghislaine Maxwell’s repeated pleas not to speak to the press about Jeffrey Epstein, one of her closest confidantes has revealed. Pictured: Prince Andrew and Maxwell at Ascot in 2000
Speaking about the interview, Ms Goldman, who became close to Maxwell after meeting her at parties in the 1990s, told The Sunday Mirror: ‘She thought it was terrible and that’s what she told me was the beginning of the end.
‘We knew things were bad.’
Ms Goldman last night revealed that Maxwell was under Epstein’s control and believed he would marry her.
She said: ‘I never saw him berate her but she always a little afraid of him, she’d say “I have to go, he’s going to yell at me”.
‘I do [think she was totally under his control]. It doesn’t mean what she did was okay.
‘Almost every woman you meet in jail is there because of a man. Some women are much more susceptible because of society’s pressures to do things to please a man.
‘I think she thought if she found him one more girl, he would marry her. Is that okay? No.
‘She honestly thought at the end of the day she was going to be Mrs Jeffrey Epstein and that was a prize she wanted.’
Laura Goldman, a New York stockbroker who has known Maxwell for several years, says the socialite warned the Duke of York against discussing convicted paedophile Epstein publicly
Ms Goldman said she last spoke to Maxwell ‘a couple of weeks ago’, adding that the British socialite ‘knew she was coming to the end of the road’.
Ms Goldman said: ‘Initially she felt she was going to be fine because of the immunity provision, but I think in recent months she saw the fuhrer had died.
‘When Jeffrey initially died, she was relieved, she thought it was over.’
It emerged this week that Maxwell was once photographed sitting in the Throne Room at Buckingham Palace alongside actor Kevin Spacey in 2002, years before police began investigating Epstein’s links to sex trafficking and abuse.
The developments have brought renewed pressure on the Duke of York to speak to investigators about his relationship with the disgraced paedophile billionaire, following back-and-forth claims that both parties were being uncooperative.
The Prince with 17-year-old Virginia Roberts as Ghislaine Maxwell stands in the background circa 2001
But Ms Goldman suggested Maxwell would be more likely to discuss Epstein’s dealings with former US President Bill Clinton and his successor Donald Trump instead of Andrew. No allegations have been made about either man.
‘The only way she can walk is if she gives someone up, but that definitely won’t be Andrew,’ Ms Goldman told The Telegraph, which published the picture of Ghislaine in Buckingham Palace with Spacey.
‘She is so appreciative that when she first came to New York, the Duke helped to launch her into high society. She always talks about what a true friend he is. She doesn’t see any reason to speak about him to the authorities.’
There is concern among royal circles over what implications Ms Maxwell’s arrest in New Hampshire on Thursday could have for the Duke, 60, who was reportedly introduced to the billionaire paedophile by her in 1999.
Maxwell posed with Kevin Spacey in the throne room
A photo has emerged of Ghislane Maxwell sitting in the Buckingham Palace Throne Room alongside Kevin Spacey.
It was reported that the pair were on a private tour of the palace organised by the Duke of York for former US president Bill Clinton.
The image, from 2002, was obtained by the Daily Telegraph which reported it was not thought that Epstein was not on the tour.
In the photograph the pair are seen smiling while sat in the throne room.
In 2017 Spacey (above) was accused of sexual assault by the actor Anthony Rapp as the MeToo movement evolved.
A string of other allegations of inappropriate behaviour followed and Spacey’s career has struggled since.
The Telegraph said it was not thought that Epstein was on the palace tour when the picture was taken.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment.
Maxwell was this week discovered living quietly in Bradford, a small town in New Hampshire, by FBI and NYPD officers after evading them for a year.
The socialite was awake and sitting in the living room wearing jogging bottoms and a t-shirt when the FBI swooped on her $1million hideaway.
A source told The Times Maxwell did not say a word while she was being arrested.
When asked if she was surprised to be found by police, the source said: ‘What do you think?’
The six charges filed against her include conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts and enticement of a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts.
She is further charged with conspiracy to transport minors with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity and transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.
One former associate of her late paedophile boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein predicted she would co-operate fully with the authorities in a bid to reduce any future jail time, adding: ‘There’s a lot of people very worried. She knows everything.’
One lawyer representing Epstein victims, Gloria Allred, said: ‘If Miss Maxwell decides that she is going to co-operate and talk about Prince Andrew… Prince Andrew might want to get to the prosecutors first.’
The duke’s allies insisted he wants to ‘do his best’, claiming he had tried unsuccessfully to break the deadlock with US prosecutors three times in the past month.
The comments came as former Epstein associate Steven Hoffenberg, a convicted fraudster who worked with the financier in the 1980s, said of Maxwell: ‘She’s going to co-operate and be very important. There’s a lot of people very worried. She knows everything. She’ll totally co-operate.’
Lawyer Lisa Bloom, who represents six of Epstein’s victims, said it was ‘highly likely’ Maxwell, 58, would strike a plea deal with prosecutors.
Another lawyer representing more Epstein victims, Spencer Kuvin, agreed. ‘I think [Maxwell] will talk,’ he said.
‘She will be in panic mode, and will want to do anything to get a lighter sentence. For anyone who has culpability for anything over the past ten to 15 years, I’d be nervous.’
Chillingly, he added: ‘I don’t think she is going to get out of jail alive. I said the same thing about Jeffrey Epstein and people laughed at me. I think she knows way too much… I just have this gut feeling.’
Epstein hanged himself in his cell last August while awaiting trial on child sex charges. His guards were found to have faked records saying they had checked on him.
Andrew’s immediate fate is in the hands of Home Office officials, who must decide whether to grant US officials’ request for ‘mutual legal assistance’ made in April. Under the terms of a 1994 treaty between the US and UK, this could see the duke forced to give evidence in a courtroom
Conspiracy theories abound that Epstein was killed to stop him talking about his powerful friends. Prince Andrew stayed with Epstein at his mansions in New York, Florida and the Caribbean, where women have claimed they were abused. He also flew on Epstein’s private jet, nicknamed the ‘Lolita Express’.
However, he insisted last year that he never saw, witnesses or suspected ‘any behaviour of the sort’ that led to Epstein’s arrest and conviction for child sex offences.
London mayor Sadiq Khan was among those urging the duke to talk to US officials, telling LBC: ‘I think it’s really important for those of us in positions of power and influence to lead by example.
‘We shouldn’t lose sight of… who the victims are. The victims were children at the time, vulnerable children, young women, and it’s really important that anybody who’s got information helps the FBI and that includes Prince Andrew as well.’
Mrs Allred, who represents five Epstein victims, told Good Morning Britain: ‘I’m just so tired of the excuses. The victims want the truth.
‘We know that Prince Andrew was at Epstein’s home in London and in Manhattan and elsewhere, so he is an important person, and if Miss Maxwell decides that she is going to co-operate and talk about Prince Andrew and what he did there, Prince Andrew might want to get to the prosecutors first.’
Sources close to the duke, 60, claimed he wants ‘to do his best to offer his assistance as a witness’.
They insisted his legal team had been proactive, sending three emails in the past month to the Americans to ‘open negotiations’ to discuss the terms under which he might give a witness statement.
Maxwell was picked up by the FBI and NYPD detectives at 8.30am at the property in Bradford, New Hampshire, she had bought in December 2019 using a limited liability company called Granite Reality LLC to shield her name
The last contact was made within the past few days but there has been no response, the sources said.
The FBI has made no secret of its wish to meet Andrew face-to-face and question him under oath – suggesting a statement drafted with his lawyers would not suffice.
One insider said Andrew and his team were puzzled as to why other high-profile men linked to Epstein were not being pursued with the same vigour.
‘It seems like the duke is a high-profile scalp for the Department of Justice and they are using his name to rattle cages and look like they are actively doing something,’ they said.
Andrew’s immediate fate is in the hands of Home Office officials, who must decide whether to grant US officials’ request for ‘mutual legal assistance’ made in April.
Under the terms of a 1994 treaty between the US and UK, this could see the duke forced to give evidence in a courtroom.
A specialist unit of civil servants within the Home Office is ‘processing’ the request ‘via the normal channels’, sources said.
Once their recommendation has been made, the final ruling is expected to be made by Home Secretary Priti Patel.
With no time limit attached to the request, officials may not wish to rush their decision. They may also hope the prince resolves the situation himself.
British socialite Maxwell, the daughter of disgraced newspaper tycoon Robert Maxwell, now faces six federal charges including child abuse, trafficking and perjury.
She was said to have spent the first day following her arrest at Merrimack County Jail in Boscawen, New Hampshire. She will eventually be transferred to Manhattan, where she could end up in the jail where Epstein, 66, killed himself.
She was arrested in a secluded property in the New Hampshire, fittingly called ‘TuckedAway’. The Mail can reveal it was bought via limited company Granite Reality, which was established on November 18 last year.
This was one day after Prince Andrew’s Newsnight interview, intended to clear up his relationship with Epstein but which led to him quitting frontline royal duties.
Maxwell has already made one brief court appearance in New Hampshire but has not entered any plea to allegations relating to three girls, one as young as 14 and another in London.
She allegedly befriended schoolgirls and took them shopping before luring them into Epstein’s clutches, as well as abusing them herself. She has previously denied all allegations of wrongdoing.
Virginia Roberts, who claims she was Epstein’s teenage sex slave and was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew three times, thanked the FBI for arresting ‘an evil monster’ after she was given the news by her lawyer in an early morning phone call.
Miss Roberts – whose claims the prince strenuously denies – added: ‘When I got the call, I was elated, crying tears of joy, laughing… finally, we got her. This woman found me, groomed me, abused me and handed me over to Jeffrey and his friends.’
The mum-of-three who lives near Cairns in Queensland, said: ‘When I got the call I was elated, crying tears of joy, laughing… finally we got her.
‘It felt even better than when Jeffrey got arrested – he was a pedophile, they cannot be cured. They either belong in jail or six feet under. Ghislaine, on the other hand, is an evil monster.
Ms Roberts claims it was Maxwell who first spotted her while she worked as a spa attendant at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, less than a mile away from Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion.
‘This woman found me, groomed me, abused me and handed me over to Jeffrey and his friends,’ she added.
She also vowed that Prince Andrew would be the next person arrested after the FBI found Ghislaine Maxwell, and pleaded with him to cooperate with US investigators.
‘He knows what he has done. He is going to go to jail. He has already lost so much but that is not enough. Justice has to prevail. He has to be held accountable.’
From Donald Trump to Naomi Campbell, why it’s not just Prince Andrew feeling the heat after Jeffrey Epstein’s ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested by the FBI
ByGuy Adams for the Daily Mail
He might not be able to sweat, but Prince Andrew won’t be the only one feeling a little hot under the collar following Ghislaine Maxwell’s arrest.
The socialite ran almost every aspect of Jeffrey Epstein’s seedy existence, from his homes and private jet to his colourful social calendar, which saw him rubbing shoulders with some of the most famous people in the world.
Here are some of the figures who had connections to the late paedophile financier and may dread being dragged into the case as witnesses…
He might not be able to sweat, but Prince Andrew won’t be the only one feeling a little hot under the collar following Ghislaine Maxwell’s arrest
Bill Clinton
Clinton and Jeffrey Epstein first met in the early 1990s, when the financier made large donations to both his presidential campaign and to refurbish the White House following his election.
Flight logs from Epstein’s private jet, which was famously dubbed the ‘Lolita Express’, suggest that after leaving office the former US president took at least ten trips on it.
Maxwell is seen above (circled) as Bill Clinton walks daughter Chelsea down the aisle at her wedding
One was a jaunt to Africa when he was joined on board by the actor Kevin Spacey, who much like Mr Clinton, has faced a string of allegations of sexual misconduct.
A book called A Convenient Death: The Mysterious Demise Of Jeffrey Epstein has alleged that during this period, Clinton and Ghislaine Maxwell were conducting an affair.
The book also claims Epstein once took Mr Clinton to an orgy during an overseas jaunt. The ex-president allegedly walked in but immediately said ‘No, no, no, this is not my thing,’ before leaving.
Even after Epstein’s arrest, Clinton continued to give and receive hospitality. The financier made a $25,000 donation to his foundation in 2006, and in 2010 Maxwell was invited to the wedding of Chelsea Clinton.
Clinton (whose appears 21 times in Maxwell’s ‘little black book’ of contacts) has described claims of an affair as ‘a total lie’ and a spokesman has insisted that he ‘knows nothing about the terrible crimes’.
Donald Trump
The most powerful man in the world was once proud to call himself a bosom buddy of Epstein.
‘I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,’ he told a New York magazine journalist in 2002.
‘He’s a lot of fun… It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.’
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell is pictured above with Donald Trump and his now-wife Melania Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Florida
A now-notorious photo shows Trump and his future wife Melania posing with Epstein and Ghislaine at a tennis tournament in Palm Beach, where both men kept homes.
Donald Trump is pictured above with future wife Melania and Ghislaine Maxwell
Further insight into the pair’s relationship comes courtesy of a video of the duo taken in 1992 at Mar-a-Lago in which they ogle young women on the dancefloor.
The future president (then recently divorced) is seen grabbing a female guest’s backside, saying: ‘Look at her, back there… She’s hot!’
Epstein reacts with a smile and a nod. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Trump has lately changed his tune about his old wingman, saying last year: ‘I haven’t spoken to him in 15 years. I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you.’
Alan Dershowitz
One of America’s most famous lawyers, who represented Trump at his recent impeachment trial, headed up the legal ‘dream team’ which negotiated an extraordinary 2008 plea bargain that saw Epstein spend 13 months in an open prison after being accused of dozens of child sex crimes.
The former attorney for everyone from OJ Simpson to Harvey Weinstein was dragged back into the Epstein affair in 2014 by Virginia Giuffre (formerly Roberts) – perhaps the financier’s most high-profile victim.
In court papers, Giuffre claimed that she was routinely made ‘available for sex to politically-connected and financially-powerful people’, saying that Dershowitz had abused her as a minor ‘not only in Florida but also on private planes, in New York, New Mexico, and the US Virgin Islands’.
The former attorney for everyone from OJ Simpson to Harvey Weinstein was dragged back into the Epstein affair in 2014 by Virginia Giuffre (formerly Roberts) – perhaps the financier’s most high-profile victim
In a 2018 court hearing, it emerged that a second alleged victim, Sarah Ransome, claimed to have been told by Maxwell ‘to have sex with third parties, including Alan Dershowitz, for example’.
Dershowitz vigorously denies all claims of impropriety. He admits having received a massage at Epstein’s home but says it came from an ‘old woman’.
Woody Allen
The film-maker didn’t appear to have much in common with Jeffrey Epstein, aside from having been on the wrong end of abuse allegations, when he agreed to attend a dinner party at the convicted child sex offender’s Manhattan home shortly before Christmas 2010.
His dinner party invitation was extended by Maxwell, who assembled an array of stellar guests.
The main draw, however, was Prince Andrew who, according to the New York gossip columns, waxed lyrical about Prince William’s forthcoming wedding.
‘Everyone at the table, including Woody Allen jokingly asked him for an invite,’ read a report. ‘But he just smiled.’
Allen and Epstein’s relationship blossomed. In 2013, the duo were spotted strolling around the city’s Upper East Side together, with a US newspaper reporting: ‘The former hedgefunder was ‘hugging (Allen) and talking close to his ear’ on Sunday.’
The film-maker didn’t appear to have much in common with Jeffrey Epstein, aside from having been on the wrong end of abuse allegations, when he agreed to attend a dinner party at the convicted child sex offender’s Manhattan home shortly before Christmas 2010
Jean-Luc Brunel
The French modelling agent made his name in the 1980s, claiming to have launched the careers of Jerry Hall and Sharon Stone.
He became matey with Epstein during the late 1990s, growing to become his closest male friend, and has been widely accused of using a Florida agency they co-founded called MC2 to fly dozens of young girls to America on model visas.
Court papers allege the women were ‘farmed out’ to have sex with the paedophile and his associates.
Naomi Campbell
The hot-tempered supermodel – – was dragged into the Epstein affair in 2010, when court papers revealed that she had once flown in the paedophile’s private jet.
In January, further controversy erupted when Virginia Giuffre used Twitter to share photographs of herself standing next to Maxwell and Campbell at the supermodel’s 31st birthday party in St Tropez in the early 2000s.
In January, further controversy erupted when Virginia Giuffre used Twitter to share photographs of herself standing next to Maxwell and Campbell at the supermodel’s 31st birthday party in St Tropez in the early 2000s
Ehud Barak
The one-time Israeli prime minister featured prominently in Epstein’s address book.
It has emerged Epstein had invested in one of Barak’s business ventures in 2015. Then US tax records revealed he had received $2million in grants from a foundation which counted the disgraced financier as a trustee.
In July, the dispute went stratospheric when the Mail published photos from 2016 showing Barak wearing a huge coat and hat to enter the child sex offender’s New York home.
Several young women were photographed entering the property around the same time. Barak later confessed he’d met Epstein at least ten times, but denied ever seeing him ‘in the company of women or young girls’.
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