One glance at the fates of the Maxwell children and you will see that it’s hard not to believe the nine sons and daughters of Robert Maxwell, a tyrannical media mogul, was cursed right from the beginning.
His youngest and most beloved is Ghislaine. She is on trial for a series of charges related to trafficking minors in exchange for Jeffrey Epstein, her ex-love.
And what about the Maxwell siblings?
MailOnline explores Ghislaine’s fate. It includes his brilliant scientist brother, Maxwell Bullied and twins who went on to become dotcom millionaires. The tragic sister also died during childhood.
Robert Maxwell (back row) photographed with Betty Maxwell (sitting with their youngest daughter Ghislaine, on her knee), and seven of their eight children in Headington Hill Hall Oxford. Ian was eleven years old when this photograph was taken. Isabel was 17 and was going to grammar school. Kevin was eight and was still at preparatory. Anne (2), the second oldest child, was also enrolled in her second year of undergraduate studies at Balliol College. Michael, Michael the oldest, died in his final days after an accident.
Ghislaine Maxwell (pictured front) and her six siblings in June 2019. Ian Maxwell (her older brother) shared this photo with her in March 2021. Ghislaine fled to hiding with Scott Borgerson, her husband, a month after the photo was taken. Jeffrey Epstein was later arrested. L-R: Anne, Kevin and twins Isabel, Christine and Philip. Ian is the father.
Michael, the tragedy first-born son who was killed in his 20s
Robert Maxwell wed Elisabeth Betty Meynard on May 15, 1945, and they had nine children in the subsequent 15 years.
In a 1995 interview, Elisabeth talked of how they were recreating his childhood family who were killed in the Holocaust.
The couple’s eldest child, Michael (born shortly after their marriage), was also born. His life would be short.
Michael, aged 15, sustained severe injuries when his driver lost control of the steering wheel just 48 hours after Ghislaine’s birth.
Michael was in a coma. He never recovered consciousness. He Eight years later, he died.
Philip, 73 years old, was a brilliant scientist who fled Argentina to become a doctor.
“Poor Philip” (left 1971), was his name. A brilliant mathematician and scientist, he won an Oxford scholarship to Balliol College. He fled Argentina eventually. He is currently unknown but was reunited with his siblings in 2019 (right).
Poor Philip was, as his friends knew him, a genius scientist and mathematician. At just 16 years old, he won a scholarship for Balliol College.
He hated his father so much that he fled Argentina as quickly as possible to escape him. [him] as possible’.
Robert wanted them to be together, but Nilda was against their wishes and they fell apart irretrievably.
The marriage didn’t last — Nilda moved out taking their daughter Marcella with her and a second marriage also failed.
Philip was last heard of living in a £65-a-week flat in North London trying to be a writer. Who is the subject? He bullied his father.
For a 2019 London reunion, he was reunited with his siblings
Anne was ex-actress and called ugly by her father
Anne Maxwell was the oldest daughter. She dreamed to be an actor before she retrained as a teacher. Because of her beauty, she was subject to bullying from her father. Photographed in 1968, and 2019.
Her father was shocked when her acting career failed. Both you and Pope John Paul II are both horrible actors.
Anne, who studied French and Italian at Oxford before she gave up on her dream of becoming a star, reportedly worked as a TV producer.
Then, she trained as an educator in Montessori, and then married an osteopath. She is currently a hypnotherapist working under another name in Surrey.
Since her death, at age 68, of her father, she has remained out of the spotlight.
Christine, 71, dotcom boom millionaire
Christine was not like her twin sister Isabel.
Christine, unlike her twin sister Isabel was a businesswoman and worked for years for her father. She even wrote a bestseller for Pergamon.
After attending senior school at Milham Ford School in Oxford, she entered Pitzer College, Claremont, California, graduating in 1972 with a BA with a major in Latin American Studies and Sociology.
In September 1973, Maxwell enrolled at Oxford Brookes University’s Lady Spencer Churchill College of Education and obtained a post graduate teaching certificate the following year.
Christine is still employed at The University of Texas. Photo taken at the 2019 reunion
Later, she earned her master’s in Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas.
Christine served as editor in Pergamon Press Publishers. Her father co-founded the company in the 1970s. He remained with her until the 1980s. Also, she worked as an Oxford teacher.
In 1998 she gave a rare interview and spoke about the many years in her father’s publishing company. She said, “Both my parents had strong work ethics, which they instilled into me and my siblings when I was very young.
‘They also communicated a very clear understanding that advantages always come with responsibilities — that there was no such thing as a free ride.’
With her father’s Pergamon Press in 1977, she published The Dictionary Of Perfect Spelling. This book had 20,000 words. It was an international bestseller that has been repeatedly reprinted.
Their success during the dotcom boom ruled the 1990s, just like her twin. Christine purchased Information on Demand (one of the earliest information brokers) in 1982. It was later renamed Research on Demand.
Christine was the co-author of one the first printed reference guides for the Internet, The McKinley Internet White Pages.
She co-founded the software company Chiliad, continuing her tradition.
Christine She is married and has three children with Roger Malina.
Christine, according to her LinkedIn profile is a program manager for learning technologies at The University of Texas.
Karine died from leukemia as a child
Robert and Elisabeth lost their sixth child Karine to leukemia at the age of three in 1957.
The parents’ grief at her death had an impact on how they would view Ghislaine, their next child, four years later.
Ian Maxwell, an interviewer, explained that Karine’s passing upset the family’s balance of “four boys and four daughters”.
“So my parents got another little girl.” [Ghislaine]It was truly magic. This allowed four boys to recreate the experience, and four girls,’ Ian stated. She was also born on Christmas Day, adding to that sense of miracle.
Ian, 65 years old, is the ‘fall guy,’ who defends and supports his sister
Robert Maxwell pictured with his son Ian (left), who was taunted mercilessly by his siblings, and youngest son Kevin (right), who became Britain’s biggest ever bankrupt when a £407million bankruptcy order was made against him
Ian’s first spouse was Laura Marie Plumb (American former basketball player and model), who is pictured here on the first day in the trial of the pension fund.
Taunted mercilessly at home — his father would ridicule him in front of visiting friends – Ian still decided to join the family business.
He was still treated badly and was often compared with his brother Kevin.
In the aftermath of their father’s death, Ian, then 35, and Kevin, 32, assumed control of the company and stood trial for their part in their father’s £460 million pension fraud.
The Maxwells were not acquitted. However, the Maxwell name was in tatters for several years. There were no overseas business opportunities.
Ian has given a number of interviews on his sister’s trial and case in recent months, bemoaning the treatment she has received. Pictured on Good Morning America March
Ian was married to Laura Marie Plumb, an American college basketball player and model.
She moved to London with her husband to set up TV Cable Company. The couple married in 1991 — the year of Robert Maxwell’s death — and the ensuing media attention put Laura under great strain. She was seen sobbing on the day Ian and Kevin were detained. They divorced in 1996.
He married Tara Dudley Smith next, who was the daughter of an ex-Army officer and Jockey Club steward. However, that marriage ended as well. Cecilia French, the Director of Public Protection at The Home Office, was what he found his happiness.
Kevin and Ian recently felt the desire to help the greater good after exploring business opportunities in energy, telecoms and property.
Three years ago in the middle the Greek financial crisis they created an organization similar to Prince’s Trust in Greece. This organisation has helped launch hundreds of businesses and raised millions of euro.
Maxwell and Kevin established the UK’s Combating Jihadist Terrorism (CoJit) think tank in September 2018, with the goal of improving our understanding of terrorism.
He gave a series of interviews in recent months about his sister’s trial and case, bemoaning her treatment.
In March 2021 he told The Times Epstein had ruined his youngest sibling’s life — and she is paying for the US authorities’ failure to prosecute him.
Kevin (62), Britain’s largest ever bankrupt
Kevin, the smartest and most influential son of his family and the driving force behind it all, was devastated by the death of his father in 1991. He said that he had’missed him’ and his ability to rule.
Kevin Maxwell was the Maxwell siblings’ only ever public expression of regret for Robert Maxwell’s crimes. Pictured right: Kevin with Ian Maxwell, his brother on the 2018 launch their think tank
Kevin, the smartest and most important son of his family and driving force, was devastated by his father’s passing. He said that he “missed him’s presence and his ability to rule”. He confessed to feeling completely in awe.
Kevin Maxwell, the only Maxwell sibling to ever express public remorse for Robert Maxwell’s crimes. He made mention of the “moral burden” that he will carry for the rest his life.
Pandora Warnford Davis, his first wife, called Robert her father-in law the “fat fraudster”.
Kevin is pictured here in 2019. Kevin dreamt of making a lot in his late 90s. However, it didn’t happen.
When, in June 1992, Kevin was arrested and charged with fraud after hundreds of millions disappeared from the Maxwell empire’s employee pension funds, she appeared at the window of their home at dawn and shouted: ‘P*** off, or I’ll call the police!’ The police were then discovered by the early morning phone calls.
They divorced in 2007 after having seven children and 23 years together. Pandora last saw her living in Oxford renting a room on Airbnb.
Soon after his arrest, Kevin became Britain’s biggest ever bankrupt when a £407 million bankruptcy order was made against him.
Following the obligatory three year period, the bankruptcy was declared exempted in 1995.
And, after an Old Bailey trial that cost taxpayers £12 million in legal aid, he was acquitted of fraud a year later — even though a subsequent Whitehall report concluded Kevin bore a ‘heavy responsibility’ for what happened.
Telemonde was founded in the USA by Telemonde. He hoped it would become the Maxwell-comeback story. This was not the case.
When Telemonde floated in 1999, Kevin looked on course to becoming a multi-millionaire; on paper he owned a seven per cent stake, worth £16 million.
But by 2001, the company had debts of more than £100 million and failed. Kevin moved on to commercial real estate of high value.
After eight years of being a director, his venture fell apart in 2011.
They also founded their think tank, which was established in 2018 by the brothers.