Ghislaine Maxwell calls Prince Andrew her ‘dear friend’ in prison interview
- Maxwell, the socialite convicted of helping financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse underage girls, undermined Andrew’s claims that the pair are not close
- Speaking to the Mail on Sunday newspaper, Maxwell said Andrew is ‘paying such a price’ for his association with Epstein. ‘I feel so bad for him,’ she said
Ghislaine Maxwell, the socialite convicted of helping the financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse underage girls used an affectionate term to refer to Prince Andrew in a rare jailhouse interview, potentially undermining the Duke of York’s claims that the pair are not that close.
Speaking to the Mail on Sunday newspaper, Maxwell, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for sex-trafficking girls for US financier Jeffrey Epstein, referred to Prince Andrew as her “dear friend,” reported the newspaper.
During the interview, which took place over the summer from the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn, New York, 60-year-old Maxwell went on to say that Prince Andrew is “paying such a price” for his association with Epstein.
“I care about him, and I feel so bad for him,” she told the Mail on Sunday.
Last August, Virginia Giuffre sued Prince Andrew. She said Epstein, Maxwell, and Andrew forced her to have sex with the prince when she was 17 in Maxwell’s London home. The prince denied the allegations, later reaching an out-of-court settlement with Giuffre.
As part of her complaint, Giuffre’s lawyers described Andrew as a “close friend” of Maxwell. Andrew’s legal team denied this – a claim which many have cast doubt on.
Ghislaine Maxwell sued by her lawyers over US$878,000 in unpaid fees
Business Insider previously reported on a former royal police officer describing the denial as “nonsense,” adding that he saw Maxwell and Andrew together at least a dozen times. They were often spotted together in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and were even rumoured to have been dating.
Two sources who were interviewed for the ITV documentary, Ghislaine, Prince Andrew and the Paedophile, said that Andrew and Maxwell were so close that Buckingham Palace staff believed them to be in a relationship at one point.
Andrew said in his infamous November 2019 interview with the BBC’s Newsnight that he had known Maxwell since her university days.
When presented with Andrew’s lawyers’ claim that she and the Duke of York are not close, she told the Mail on Sunday: “I accept that this friendship could not survive my conviction.”
Maxwell said she is uncertain if their friendship will ever recover. “I don’t have an expectation,” she told the newspaper. “People who I have been friends with – and very close friends with – whoever they may be, well, I can’t think about what they will want to do or not do. I can only control what I do.”
Ghislaine Maxwell sentenced to 20 years for ‘horrific’ sex crimes
Maxwell was also asked by the Mail on Sunday about the infamous photo showing her with Andrew and then-17-year-old Virginia Roberts – now Guiffre.
The photo was included in an affidavit where Giuffre claimed Prince Andrew directed her to have sex with him.
Andrew has claimed the photo was doctored, saying that he had reason – but not proof – to believe it was not genuine. Maxwell agreed with this in the interview, despite experts saying it is legitimate, per the Mail on Sunday.
The Duke of York’s publicity team declined to comment.
