Ghislaine Maxwell has contradicted Prince Andrew’s claims about how he met Jeffrey Epstein (Picture: Reuters/Getty Images)
Ghislaine Maxwell has strongly denied Prince Andrew’s claims that she introduced him to his paedophile friend Jeffrey Epstein, new court documents have revealed.
The Duke of York was famously quizzed about how he met the American sex offender in a car crash interview on BBC Newsnight in November 2019.
He claimed that he met Epstein ‘through his girlfriend’ – but Maxwell has contradicted his version of events and said: ‘What I do know is that I did not introduce them.’
‘Well one of them is lying,’ said one of Epstein’s victims who received a payout from the millionaire’s compensation fund.
The 36-year-old mum told the Mirror: ‘The two of them have been like peas in a pod, backing each other every step of the way. But clearly it’s just been a facade.’
Hundreds of pages of legal documents unsealed on Friday revealed that convicted sex offender Maxwell said ‘clearly’ the prince knew Epstein, but she didn’t know how they met.
The information, made public by a US court, is linked to the 2015 defamation case brought against Maxwell by Virginia Giuffre, who accused Andrew of sexually abusing her as a teenager – claims he has always strenuously denied.
Ghislaine Maxwell, pictured in 2013, said she ‘never introduced Prince Andrew’ to Epstein, who was her partner at the time (Picture: Laura Cavanaugh/Getty Images)
Prince Andrew is again at the centre of claims in new court documents unsealed this week (Picture: Reuters)
British socialite Maxwell claimed that Ms Giuffre’s supposed meetings with the duke are a ‘tissue of lies’ during an exchange with the alleged victim’s lawyer Sigrid McCawley in April 2016.
When asked if she introduced Andrew to Epstein, who killed himself in his prison cell while awaiting trial for sex trafficking charges in 2019, Maxwell said: ‘That would be another of Virginia’s lies and the lies you perpetrate.
‘I never introduced Prince Andrew to Jeffrey Epstein at any time ever, so just add that the (sic) to long list of lies.
‘I do not know (sic) Jeffrey met Prince Andrew. What I do know is that I did not introduce them. That is one of the many lies. Are we tallying all the lies?’
Prince Andrew pictured here in February 2000 at a party at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach Florida, with Epstein, Donald Trump’s now-wife Melania and Gwendolyn Beck (Picture: Davidoff Studios/Getty Images)
Virginia Giuffre alleges that Prince Andrew sexually abused her after she was introduced to him by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell (Picture: AP)
Ms McCawley then asked her: ‘Did you ever introduce Prince Andrew to any girls under the age of 18 who were not friends of your children?’
Maxwell replied: ‘I have not introduced Prince Andrew to anyone that I am aware of other than friends of mine who have kids under that age that he may have met socially through me.’
Maxwell admitted that she ‘understands’ Ms Giuffre’s ‘story about London’ but said: ‘Again, her tissue of lies is extremely hard to pick apart what is true and what isn’t.
‘Actually I wouldn’t recollect her at all but for her tissue stories about this situation.’
Maxwell pictured with her ex-partner Epstein (Picture: SDNY/ZUMA Press Wire/REX)
Ms McCawley pressed Maxwell again on whether she introduced Andrew to Ms Giuffre in London and she responded: ‘I have no recollection.’
Andrew has strenuously denied Ms Giuffre’s claims and also said he had ‘no recollection of ever meeting’ Ms Giuffre.
He was pictured with his arm around her waist at Maxwell’s London townhouse in March 2001.
Prince Andrew pictured here in March 2001 with Virginia Giuffre and Ghislaine Maxwell inside her Mayfair home (Picture: PA)
The testimony from Maxwell is completely at odds with what Andrew told the BBC’s Emily Maitlis. He had claimed he met Epstein ‘through his girlfriend [Maxwell] back in 1999… and I’d known her since she was at university in the UK’.
Following his disastrous BBC interview, Andrew stepped back from public life and lost his HRH title.
He settled a claim by Ms Giuffre for an undisclosed sum in 2022, thought to be worth around £12million, without admitting any wrongdoing.
Another document uncovered on Friday revealed an interview with one of Epstein’s former housekeepers Juan Alessi who said Andrew spent ‘weeks’ at the financier’s Florida home and had ‘daily massages’.
There are also fresh claims that he participated in an ‘underage orgy’.
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It contradicts how the Duke of York says he met Epstein.