The Ghislaine Maxwell tapes, released on Friday night by the US Department of Justice and available for anyone to listen to, are utterly fascinating. It’s the first real chance we’ve had to hear the voice of a woman who ranks, in popular perception at least, alongside some of history’s greatest villains.
There have been books, documentaries and endless column inches written about her. But the woman herself has never been heard (beyond the confines of her few remaining friends and family members). Our picture of her is built by the testimonies, invariably hostile, of others.
These tapes change all that. They show her in a whole new light and may well raise a few doubts in people’s minds as to how much of what we have been led to believe about her is actually true. They certainly made me think.
One thing is for sure: the veracity of some of the things she says remains questionable, not least the assertion that the famous photograph of the late Virginia Giuffre with Prince Andrew is fake. This is despite a forensic investigation by this newspaper that has all but proven otherwise.
But that’s not what hooked me. It’s her – her voice, her personality, the way she speaks, those soft, well spoken, slightly hesitant, apologetic tones. There is a girlishness to her that belies her age (63). To say she is seductive is not quite right. But she is compelling in a way that I had not anticipated. It’s confusing, unsettling, unexpected. I don’t know if I trust it. But I can’t deny it.
She certainly does not come across as a heartless, hardened madam, the arch manipulator at the centre of a web of sexual intrigue, collecting helpless, juicy specimens to feed to her master.
The US Justice Department released a transcript of an interview with Ghislaine Maxwell last week
!['Our picture of [Maxwell] is built by the testimonies, invariably hostile, of others,' writes Sarah Vine](https://www.americanpolibeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/1756001808_139_Ghislaine-Maxwell-has-serious-daddy-issues-and-ended-up-in.jpg)
‘Our picture of [Maxwell] is built by the testimonies, invariably hostile, of others,’ writes Sarah Vine
On the contrary, she comes over as uncertain, vulnerable, at times incredibly fragile. There is a naivety to her, which I had not anticipated. For example, she says ‘hypocryphal’ when she means ‘apocryphal’, and she does it twice. It’s a small thing, but it stands out and betrays her befuddlement.
Also, she only once refers to Epstein as ‘Jeffrey’, which feels odd. He’s always ‘Epstein’, or ‘Mr Epstein’. There is a formality that belies their supposed intimacy.
If it’s an act, it’s remarkably skilled. At times her emotion is audible. There are moments when, speaking about Epstein, or her father, she sounds utterly heartbroken.
There’s no doubt her association with Epstein took her to some dark places. What’s debatable, hearing these tapes, is whether she went there by design or ended up there almost by accident as a result of her weak psychological and emotional make-up. In other words, was she a willing participant or a mere passenger on the Epstein expressway to Hell?
Of course, whatever the nature of her participation, it still doesn’t excuse it. But it doesn’t take a genius to see that this was a woman who went from one highly controlling relationship with a manipulative deceiver – her father, Robert Maxwell – straight into an almost identical one with her lover, Jeffrey Epstein.
She met him in 1991, shortly before her father died. Epstein scooped her up, gave her a job and a salary and put her to use running his real estate affairs.
She talks about the first time they slept together, in 1992. She thought it meant they were in a relationship. That, she remarks ruefully, didn’t happen.
It’s clear from her recollections that he meant a great deal to her, whereas she clearly meant very little to him. Still, he ‘encouraged me to believe’ that they might get married and have children. She was in her early 30s when they met: she felt her clock was ticking. ‘I should have had more confidence in myself,’ she says. ‘But at the time, given everything that had happened in my life…’
Even when they finally broke up and she started a relationship with a tech tycoon, she stayed close to Epstein. ‘I viewed Epstein as family, someone I could rely on,’ she says. ‘His mum had become like a surrogate mother for me,’ she adds, her voice breaking. ‘I could look after her the way I looked after my mum.’
Dear Lord, Freud would have a field day. A father/lover who acts as her saviour yet rejects her sexually, controls her financially, undermines her confidence, makes her feel worthless one moment yet spoils her the next – and has her running around after him, trying to please the unpleasable: it’s a potent, toxic and deeply messed-up mix.
Maxwell wouldn’t be the first woman with serious daddy issues to end up in a highly toxic relationship with a nasty, manipulative man like Epstein. Not all of them end up in jail for sex trafficking.
The question is, did she do the things she did because she wanted to or because she was desperate to please him and earn his approval – and was ultimately too damaged, weak and insecure to resist?
Melania trumps Putin
Melania Trump wrote a letter to Vladimir Putin, asking him to think of the children being impacted by the war in Ukraine
Melania Trump’s letter to Vladimir Putin was a masterclass in Bond girl diplomacy. It was the epistolary equivalent of sidling up to him, running a perfectly manicured finger
down his chest and saying, ‘My, Mr Putin, what big muscles you have.’ Still, I guess if anyone knows how to handle a power-crazed narcissist, it’s Mrs Donald J. Trump.
Bravissima Ms Meloni! Your expressions are priceless
Giorgia Meloni with Donald Trump at the White House last week for negotiations to end the fighting in Ukraine
Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s prime minister, is a one-woman meme. The look on her face last week, left, as she met Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders in Washington was priceless. Every woman who has ever sat around a table with a load of mansplaining blokes with intergalactic egos will have recognised it instantly. Bravissima!
