Ghislaine Maxwell

Maxwell was in a relationship with Italian aristocrat Count Gianfranco Cicogna-Mozzoni during her time living in London. After moving to the United States and following the end of her romantic relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, she was linked to Gateway Computers founder Ted Waitt from 2003 until roughly 2010. During their relationship, she assisted in acquiring and outfitting the luxury yacht Plan B and attended the wedding of Chelsea Clinton alongside Waitt in 2010.

In 2016, Maxwell secretly married Scott Borgerson, the founder and chief executive of CargoMetrics. The couple resided together in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, where Maxwell kept a low profile and went by the name "G". In late 2019, she relocated to a 156-acre estate in Bradford, New Hampshire, using former British military personnel for security. Her marriage to Borgerson was publicly disclosed during her bail hearings in late 2020 and ended in divorce in 2021 via a telephone call while she was detained awaiting trial.

Ghislaine Noelle Marion Maxwell was born on 25 December 1961 in Maisons-Laffitte, France. She was the youngest of nine children born to Elisabeth Meynard, a French scholar, and Robert Maxwell, a Czechoslovak-born Jewish British publishing tycoon and former member of the British Parliament. Just days after her birth, her older brother Michael suffered a severe car accident that left him in a prolonged coma until his death in 1968, an event that cast a long shadow over her early childhood.

Maxwell grew up at Headington Hill Hall, a 53-room mansion in Oxford, England, which also housed the offices of Pergamon Press. She attended Oxford High School for Girls, Edgarley Hall, Headington School, and Marlborough College before entering Balliol College at the University of Oxford. In 1985, she graduated with a degree in Modern History with Languages. She maintained a close relationship with her father and was widely regarded as his favourite child, leading him to name his 187-foot yacht the Lady Ghislaine in her honour in 1986.

During the 1980s, Maxwell was a visible figure in London society. She was appointed a director of Oxford United Football Club, which her father owned, founded a private social club for women, and worked for The European, a weekly newspaper launched by her father. She also established Maxwell Corporate Gifts, a company tailored for her by her father.

In January 1991, Robert Maxwell dispatched her to New York City to act as his representative following his acquisition of the New York Daily News. This role provided her direct entry into Manhattan elite society. In November 1991, Robert Maxwell's body was discovered floating in the ocean near the Canary Islands. Following his death, investigations revealed that he had fraudulently misappropriated hundreds of millions of pounds from the Mirror Group pension funds. Facing public hostility in the United Kingdom, Maxwell moved permanently to the United States in late 1992, living on income from a Liechtenstein trust fund and working in real estate on Madison Avenue.

Maxwell met American financier Jeffrey Epstein in the early 1990s in New York. The two engaged in an intimate relationship between 1994 and 1997 and remained close associates for more than two decades. Maxwell managed Epstein's households across his properties in New York, Palm Beach, New Mexico, Paris, and the United States Virgin Islands, where she supervised household staff and organised his daily affairs. As a licensed helicopter pilot, she also transported Epstein and guests to his private island, Little Saint James.

Maxwell introduced Epstein to prominent political, social, and academic figures, expanding his network of influence. Through her long-standing friendship with Prince Andrew, which dated back to her university days, she introduced the British royal to Epstein, leading to frequent joint social engagements. Epstein and Maxwell were also acquainted with public figures including Bill Clinton and Donald Trump. In 2012, Maxwell established the TerraMar Project, an ocean conservation non-profit, giving a TEDx talk and addressing meetings at the United Nations before abruptly closing the organisation in July 2019 after Epstein was arrested on federal sex-trafficking charges.

Beginning in 2009, Maxwell was named in numerous civil lawsuits alleging that she procured, groomed, and sexually abused underage girls on behalf of Epstein. In May 2009, Virginia Giuffre filed suit naming Maxwell as a central figure in her recruitment and trafficking. In 2015, Giuffre filed a defamation lawsuit against Maxwell in federal court after Maxwell publicly labelled her allegations untrue; the lawsuit was settled in May 2017 with Maxwell paying a substantial financial settlement.

Additional accusers brought civil claims in subsequent years. Artist Maria Farmer filed a sworn affidavit in 2019 stating that she and her teenage sister Annie Farmer had been assaulted by Epstein and Maxwell in 1996. Other lawsuits were filed by victims including Sarah Ransome and Jennifer Araoz. Maxwell consistently denied all accusations, avoided process servers, and initiated legal actions of her own against Epstein's estate seeking reimbursement for her mounting legal expenses.

On 2 July 2020, federal agents from the FBI arrested Maxwell at her residence in Bradford, New Hampshire. A federal grand jury in the Southern District of New York indicted her on multiple counts, including enticement of minors, sex trafficking of children, and perjury. She was denied bail after the court determined she posed an extreme flight risk due to her substantial undisclosed assets, multiple citizenships, and history of living in seclusion, and she was remanded to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

Her federal trial commenced on 29 November 2021 before US District Judge Alison Nathan. The prosecution presented extensive testimony from four primary victims, including Annie Farmer, detailing how Maxwell groomed young girls into a coercive sexual trafficking ring. On 29 December 2021, the jury found Maxwell guilty on five counts: sex trafficking of a minor, transporting a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, and three conspiracy charges. On 28 June 2022, Judge Nathan sentenced Maxwell to 20 years in federal prison.

Following sentencing, Maxwell was initially housed at Federal Correctional Institution, Tallahassee, before being transferred in August 2025 to the minimum-security Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas. Her legal team pursued various appeals, including an unsuccessful motion for a retrial based on juror disclosure issues and a petition to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which upheld her conviction in September 2024. In October 2025, the Supreme Court of the United States declined to review her case.

In July 2025, the United States House Committee on Oversight and Accountability subpoenaed Maxwell to give evidence regarding the Epstein network. After requesting immunity from further prosecution, which was denied, Maxwell appeared virtually from prison on 9 February 2026 and invoked her Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination to all substantive questions. She subsequently filed additional habeas petitions challenging the fairness of her trial, which were rejected by federal courts.