Her notorious former boss has been languishing in federal prison where she’s serving a 20-year sentence for pimping girls for Jeffrey Epstein.
But while Ghislaine Maxwell had to contend with rotting food, rodent infestations and belligerent inmates before her move to a cushier prison last week, her alleged ‘lieutenant’ Sarah Kellen has had no such worries.
Daily Mail can reveal an exclusive glimpse inside the gilded lifestyle enjoyed by Kellen, 46, who spent around a decade working as Epstein’s personal assistant and was dubbed his lieutenant in court papers.
She’s one of several glamorous female aides accused of arranging massages for the warped financier in various civil lawsuits – but has never faced criminal prosecution.
Kellen has spoken briefly in the past to claim she was Epstein’s victim, rather than an accomplice, but didn’t respond to multiple calls this week from Daily Mail.
Her former rep, Tracy Schmaler, said she no longer represents Kellen, who runs an interior design firm from her home, according to Florida state records.
The reclusive brunette has spent the past four years residing in the sort of opulent surroundings that Epstein’s tormented victims can only dream about.
Kellen’s luxe bolt hole has been a $6.5million apartment at the ultra-exclusive Continuum condo complex in Miami Beach where she rubs shoulders with billionaires and celebs.
The 12-acre compound boasts round the clock security and amenities worthy of a five-star resort, including a ‘world class’ spa, two pools, professional tennis courts, a club, restaurant and private beach.
Kellen’s two-bed, three-bath pad on the 36th floor offers panoramic views of the Atlantic Ocean and Miami skyline from floor-to-ceiling windows and a sprawling balcony.
Ghislaine Maxwell’s alleged ‘lieutenant’ Sarah Kellen, 46, who spent a decade working as Epstein’s personal assistant, lived in a $6.5 million condo in Miami Beach
While Kellen has come out unscathed from the Maxwell trial, her former boss had to deal with rotting food, rodent infestations and belligerent inmates inside FCI Tallahassee before her transfer to Federal Prison Camp Bryan
Kellen’s $6.5million apartment is located at the ultra-exclusive Continuum condo complex in Miami Beach where she rubs shoulders with billionaires and celebs
But just how long she can go on living in the lap of luxury is open to question.
The apartment was purchased in 2021 by Kellen’s ex-NASCAR driver husband Brian Vickers, 41, who filed for divorce in February describing their marriage as ‘irretrievably broken.’
Their marital home was subsequently put up for sale on July 1 for $6,450,000.
‘Serenity and sophistication await you in this tranquil haven in the sky,’ the listing reads. ‘Paradise has an address.’
It’s unclear exactly when Vickers and Kellen, who signed a prenup before they married 12 years ago in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, split up.
In a statement announcing the divorce, Vickers, a three-time NASCAR Cup Series race winner and the 2003 Xfinity Series champion, suggested that the union had lasted only a decade.
‘After ten years of marriage and five years under a rock on social media I’m coming out of digital hiding to share some heavy news: Sarah and I are getting divorced,’ the driver turned entrepreneur announced in April.
Kellen formally changed her name from Vickers back to Kellen as long ago as 2020, according to public records.
Kellen is among several glamorous female aides accused in civil suits of arranging massages for Epstein, the disgraced financier and sex offender, yet she has never faced criminal charges
Kellen was pictured giving Epstein a back massage at Little St. James, his private Caribbean island
In 2021, Kellen’s then-husband, former NASCAR driver Brian Vickers, 41, bought the apartment; he filed for divorce in February citing an ‘irretrievably broken’ marriage, and the home hit the market on July 1 for $6.45 million
The divorce drama comes as Maxwell – Kellen’s former boss – settles into new digs inside Federal Prison Camp Bryan in southern Texas.
She’ll be hoping for better living conditions than she experienced inside FCI Tallahassee, a crowded Florida lockup where officials found rotting food, rodent infestations and walls smeared with filth during a 2023 inspection.
Maxwell was threatened and branded a ‘chomo’ – child molester – by fellow inmates during her three-year incarceration in the Sunshine State.
She was temporarily removed from prison on July 24 and interviewed for nine hours by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche about her links to Epstein, who committed suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial for child sex trafficking.
The disgraced madam – serving a 20-year-sentence for conspiring to recruit, groom and sexually abuse underage girls – has offered to brief Congress on the contents of the so-called ‘Epstein files’ if they grant her immunity from further prosecution.
Kellen, regarded as another key figure in the Epstein saga, has made no such offer, nor has she been asked to – at least not publicly.
Vickers and Kellen, who wed 12 years ago with a prenup, split at an unknown date, though the NASCAR champ’s divorce statement on social media suggested the marriage lasted a decade
Thomas and Mary Kellen, both Jehovah’s Witnesses, told Daily Mail in an exclusive interview back in 2022 that their daughter was naive and vulnerable when she met the multi-millionaire pedophile and that they feel she is ‘also a victim’
The former Epstein aide was raised in Henderson, North Carolina, by parents Thomas and Mary Kellen, both Jehovah’s Witnesses.
At 17, she married a member of her church, Noa Bonk, and moved to Hawaii but the relationship broke down after three years.
Kellen was disfellowshipped, a disciplinary sanction whereby she was expelled from the church and ostracized by its members, including her own family.
But Thomas and Mary nonetheless came to their daughter’s defense in an exclusive 2020 interview with Daily Mail.
‘What happened to all those girls is horrendous, but I do feel that Sarah was also a victim,’ Mary insisted.
‘I’m not a psychologist or a psychiatrist but I can see she was maneuvered or brainwashed.’
Kellen’s involvement with Epstein was laid bare in the 2008 sweetheart deal that allowed him to spend just 13 months in jail – much of it on barely supervised work release – in exchange for pleading guilty to Florida state charges of unlawfully paying a teen girl for sex.
The controversial non-prosecution pact extended immunity to four ‘potential co-conspirators’, Kellen and fellow executive assistants Adriana Ross, Lesley Groff and Nadia Marcinkova.
Kellen’s alleged role with Epstein emerged in his 2008 ‘sweetheart deal,’ which let him serve just 13 months after pleading guilty to paying a teen for sex, and granted immunity to four ‘potential co-conspirators’, including Kellen
It meant Kellen could not face charges in Florida despite multiple girls describing how she would book them for massages and greet them as they arrived at Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion before escorting them upstairs and laying out massage oils.
According to police reports, one victim recalled Kellen and Maxwell instructing her on how to please their depraved employer. Others claimed the pair had warned them not to speak out about what was happening.
In the subsequent slew of civil lawsuits, Kellen was referred to ‘an assistant to Ghislaine’, her second in command and even the socialite’s ‘lieutenant’.
‘Sarah was really running that organization, bringing girls and getting them in and out of the Palm Beach home,’ Spencer Kuvin, a lawyer representing several accusers, told the New York Times.
Kellen was well compensated: Epstein divulged in a 2005 interview that he paid his closest assistants $200,000 a year.
She also travelled on Epstein’s private jet, dubbed the Lolita Express, with former President Bill Clinton on at least 11 flights between 2002 and 2003, according to publicly available flight logs. Clinton has said he only traveled on the plane four times and he had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.
In 2010 civil proceedings Kellen was asked under oath whether Epstein had ever shared ‘underage girls’ with his close friend, Britain’s Prince Andrew’.
‘On the instruction of my lawyer, I must invoke my Fifth Amendment privilege,’ she replied. Andrew has denied having sex with underage girls.
Public flight logs show Kellen flew on Epstein’s private jet, the ‘Lolita Express,’ with former President Bill Clinton at least 11 times between 2002 and 2003
President Donald Trump, one of many wealthy Americans who knew Epstein, has slammed the ‘ridiculous amount of publicity’ around the late pedophile, while he and Attorney General Pam Bondi dismiss claims of a deep-state effort to shield Epstein’s alleged clients
President Donald Trump, one of dozens of wealthy Americans who socialized with Epstein, has blasted the ‘ridiculous amount of publicity’ given to the late pedophile in recent weeks. He has denied any knowledge of or involvement in Epstein’s crimes.
But both he and Attorney General Pam Bondi have struggled to shut down claims of a sinister deep-state plot to shield the predator’s supposed clients from exposure.
The DOJ and FBI pledged to reexamine Epstein’s links to prominent individuals when Trump came into office before declaring there was nothing further to investigate and nothing more would be released.
FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino – who both peddled speculative theories about Epstein prior to being appointed – backed those findings.
Critics have questioned whether their sudden interest in Maxwell is genuine.
Her lawyer David Markus said the disgraced British socialite ‘was asked maybe about 100 different people.’
But Catherine Christian, a former Manhattan assistant district attorney and NBC News legal analyst, scoffed: ‘It’s hard to believe this is anything but performative.’
Or Todd Blanche, just wanting to have her on the record saying, ‘Yes, President Trump had nothing to do with any of this. He was not a client.’
