It should have been part the annual social activities of a gilded undergraduate.
Headington Hill Hall’s 53-room Italianate home, Headington Hill Hall was floodlit with candles and covered in marquees. The catering was ‘beyond lavish’.
Magnums of champagne and a powerful sound system would further fuel the party spirit as Ghislaine Maxwell, Balliol undergraduate, ‘social queen of Oxford’ and Daddy’s favourite child, celebrated her coming of age in the company of a couple of hundred other Bright Young Things.
‘There was a lot of drinking and some surreptitious drug-taking,’ recalls one of the guests, who had known Maxwell from her time at Marlborough public school. ‘Someone, inevitably, fell fully clothed into the swimming pool.
This is the normal course of events like this. Nothing to worry about. The music stopped abruptly just before midnight. We were then all instructed to go.
‘I remember her father being there, watching the festivities. He didn’t look very happy and, obviously, he didn’t like what he saw. So he pulled the plug, as if it were Ghislaine’s 11th birthday rather than her 21st.’
That night in 1982 was the end of all that fun. But it would be another four tumultuous decades before the party was truly over for the ‘vivacious’ and ‘bulletproof’ socialite known as ‘Good Time Ghislaine’.
She spent her latest red-letter birthday – her 60th, which fell on Christmas Day – behind bars. And now she is a newly convicted sex criminal; a confirmed paedophile and child-trafficker, deserted by the rich and famous ‘friends’ whose contact details appeared in Jeffrey Epstein’s notorious little black address book.
Ghislaine Maxill was once an affluent member of New York’s social scenes and the daughter of a newspaper magnate. However, she now faces life behind bars after being found guilty of sex-trafficking. Pictured: Maxwell holds a photograph of Robert Maxwell, her father in 1991.
Robert Maxwel loved Ghislaine (pictured), more than the three Maxwell daughters and his wife Betty.
Robert Maxwell with his family at Oxford home. Robert Maxwell (left), Kevin Maxwell(middle), Ghislaine Maxwell (“first right”), Anne Maxwell (“second right”)
Maxwell maintains her innocence in all cases against her for procuring young girls for Epstein as well as engaging in sexual assault on them. Maxwell’s eldest alleged victim was only 14 years old
No one was willing to put their position at risk in order for her defense. A toxic pariah is the woman with the greatest connections in Manhattan and London.
Ghislaine Maxwell’s story is two-part tragedy. She was not the first to be hurt. Her father was a financial criminal, a fantasist and a megalomaniac.
Maxwell is a tragic example of how one cannot choose their family.
However, the second act was nearly entirely hers. Ghislaine had the option of choosing a new path when Robert Maxwell died from the superyacht named for him.
Instead, she almost immediately took up with a man of similar mien; a financier, smoke-and-mirrors crook and substitute ‘Daddy’ figure who would provide the extreme wealth she was used to.
In return, Maxwell groomed and pimped the underage girls who were Epstein’s means of sexual gratification. They were often abused by her.
And she was rewarded with the kind of ultra-sybaritic lifestyle that tempted US presidents, a British prince, Silicon Valley titans and Hollywood stars to join her on the passenger manifest of Epstein’s ‘Lolita Express’ private jet.
Robert Maxwell, (back row) is pictured with Betty Maxwell, their youngest daughter Ghislaine, and seven of their eight children, at Headington Hill Hall in Oxford. Ian, age 11, was in preparatory school. Isabel (17 years) was attending grammar school with Christine (3) and their younger sister, Christine (3). Kevin (8th grade), was still at preparatory school. Anne (2) was still studying at St Hugh’s College while Anne (1) was the oldest of his two sons. Philip had already started his second year at Balliol College in Oxford. Michael, Michael the oldest, died in his final days after an accident.
It is important to consider her difficult upbringing and the obstinacy of her father in order to fully understand what led the girl into the moral dark ages.
Jan Hoch was Robert Maxwell’s father. He was born in Solotvyno in Czechoslovakia in 1923. Maxwell later stated that his parents were Orthodox Jews and spoke Yiddish. He didn’t have a pair of shoes till he was four years old. Maxwell and his nine siblings lived in an unsanitary two-room wooden house.
Jan was Jan’s tall, intelligent firstborn. His mother loved him and adored him. Although he was supposed to be a Rabbi, he had other ideas.
When Czechoslovakia’s neighbours were tearing it up and Europe was only weeks away from war, at 16, he quit his Talmudic study. After many adventures – real or imagined – he joined the Czech army in exile in France.
Ghislaine, Robert Maxwell’s youngest child was born Christmas Day 1961. She is pictured here with her father in 1984
Ghislaine Maxwell, seen combing through the mountain of ‘Draw Coupons entries at Maxwell House 1984 before becoming involved with Jeffrey Epstein
He joined the British Army as an NCO after the fall of France and started using the name Ivan du Maurier. Jan Hoch was now Robert Maxwell by the time that he received his commission. Cap’n Bob was born. Or, rather, self-created.
RUTHLESS Tyrant:
Along the way, he had also acquired a French wife – Betty – and a rather strange, quasi-upper-crust British accent. When peace was achieved, there was nothing left to return to. Many other family members, including his parents, were also killed in the Holocaust.
He instead set out to create a business empire based upon his purchase of Pergamon Press, a publisher of scientific books. According to Betty, he also wanted to recreate the family he lost in the war — and so there would be nine Maxwell children. Ghislaine was last.
It is easy for the youngest member of a family to get overlooked, or even mollycoddled.
Ian Maxwell stated that his sister’s bond with Epstein developed when her family suggested she stay in America because of the Maxwell’s name.
Ghislaine spent the first half of her life with her father, a rags-to-riches billionaire who looted his companies’ pension funds before dying a mysterious death when he fell off his superyacht – named The Lady Ghislaine (pictured)
Ghislaine was both extremes due to the fact that her family’s tragedy overshadowed her entry into this world. The 15-year old Michael Maxwell, her eldest son, was killed in a car accident three days after Ghislaine was born. The accident caused him to fall into a coma and he didn’t wake up until seven years later.
The accident left his siblings and parents devastated. Betty, who rushed home from the French maternity hospital, was to keep a daily vigil beside Michael’s bed. Baby Ghislaine – her exotic first name a belated acknowledgement of her mother’s nationality – was all but forgotten.
‘She was hardly given a glance and became anorexic while still a toddler,’ Betty later admitted. Robert Maxwell’s attitude toward his children changed because of the crash, John Preston writes in Fall, his acclaimed biography of the tycoon.
‘The most obvious thing was we were effectively confined to barracks,’ Ghislaine’s brother Ian recalled. ‘ He had this horror of something happening to another of us . I think it was especially hard for my sister Ghislaine because she was basically ignored.’
Robert Maxwell (left) with Ghislaine, his daughter (right), and Elisabeth (right).
Robert, who was sometimes a Labour MP demanded that children demonstrate their intellect at meals. If a child’s discourse failed to meet his approval, the meal would be interrupted while he beat the miscreant – boy or girl – with a belt
The family’s life was forever changed. One day, aged three, the neglected child stood in front of her still-grieving mother and said: ‘Mummy, I exist.’ Betty was ‘devastated’ by Ghislaine’s precocious plea for affection. ‘In an attempt to compensate for the fact that she had been neglected, her parents began showering Ghislaine with attention,’ Preston writes.
Ignored child to father’s favourite
‘Pretty, coquettish and indulged, she soon became her father’s favourite. Perhaps her father saw something of his younger self in Ghislaine’s wilfulness, her refusal to compromise and her apparently cast-iron belief in her own allure.’ Betty would later note the predictable result. Ghislaine ‘became spoilt,’ she recalled. ‘The only one of my children I can truly say that about.’ Ghislaine attended Oxford High School for Girls, then boarded at a prep school in Somerset before returning to Oxford and Headington School.
They were all fascinated with her, as she and her siblings lived in an apartment complete with a staff member and limousines. However, life at home was often difficult and sometimes brutal.
A Labour MP and sometime father demanded children to prove their intelligence at mealtimes.
He would ask them to share their thoughts on the topics they chose. If a child’s discourse failed to meet his approval, the meal would be interrupted while he beat the miscreant – boy or girl – with a belt.
For school failures or for untruths, beatings could also be used. ‘Bob would shout and threaten and rant at the children until they were reduced to pulp,’ Betty admitted in her memoir.
Maxwell, a younger version of Epstein can be seen riding a motorcycle with Epstein. In the Maxwell sex-trafficking case, the prosecution submitted the undated photograph as evidence
Marlborough Public School in Wiltshire, was the place where his youngest daughter completed secondary school.
It was there that ‘Good Time Ghislaine’ began to emerge, like a butterfly from the stifling Headington cocoon. ‘I liked her, very much,’ one contemporary told the Mail. ‘She was a vivacious, flirty, very pretty girl. Good fun and naughty.’
But Ghislaine’s education, both intellectual and social, had to be completed. That meant going to Oxford University.
This was the problem. Ghislaine wasn’t an academic despite all of her charm and daredevil enthusiasm. ‘She was never considered one of the brainy ones at school,’ a Marlborough contemporary confirms.
Then, how is she able to be admitted into Balliol? One of the most distinguished Oxford colleges. The answer is simple. In 1965, Ghislaine’s father – then MP for Buckingham – instituted the Robert Maxwell Fellowship in Politics. The Robert Maxwell Fellowship in Politics would be bestowed on Balliol.
Balliol used to be the college of Boris Johnson and several other prime ministers. Kevin, Ian, and Ghislaine are also included.
Even though she was rejected for her first entrance exam, it is believed that she received a second chance. How powerful is money?
On Tuesday, the jury at Maxwell’s trial saw these photographs. It speaks to Maxwell and Maxwell’s close relationship. Prosecutors have called them ‘partners of crime.
While an undergraduate reading modern history and modern languages, Maxwell’s reputation as a party animal, social tornado and networking queen grew.
Queen of Oxford
The company of men was what she liked and that is why she enjoyed hanging out with tough-drinking, restaurant-trashing Bullingdon Club members. They were so imposing on her that she was afraid of them. She was Robert Maxwell’s daughter.
Prince Andrew was not present at the university when Maxwell met her first. Maxwell shared digs in London with an English nobleman, a jewellery heiress, and the daughter of an Old Etonian Liberal peer.
These student parties weren’t typical. Headington Hill Hall was the first to arrive with two limousines, which were used for discharging Filipino domestic staff as well as all food and drink.
These photos were taken during an FBI raid on Epstein’s Manhattan home in 2019. They offer a graphic look into Epstein and his high-flying lifestyle.
Cap’n Bob, who bought Mirror Group Newspapers in 1984, was simply investing in his youngest and most loved. Ghislaine was the front-of-house while her brother Ian and Kevin were working in the boards of their family business empire.
She was still a student at Oxford University when her father gave her the job of Oxford United Football Club director. The club had been purchased two years prior. She was ‘the youngest and best-looking director in the league’, it was reported.
Ghislaine gamely professed her love of football and was often photographed next to her father in the directors’ box. She did not perform well in her finals, which is probably not surprising. Ghislaine Maxill graduated in the summer 1985 with a degree of third class. She finished at the bottom end of her program.
Boat named after her
It was important, but did it matter? Her other strengths were also evident. Daddy loved Betty more than any of his three Maxwell girls or his wife Betty. The tycoon also invited his youngest daughter to join him at a Dutch shipyard to further illustrate the pecking order.
They appeared to be on vacation in a cold place. In an undated photograph, the couple was pictured together wearing warm coats and big fur hats.
Emad Khashoggi, an Arab businessman had ordered a superyacht measuring 55 metres. But before delivery, Khashoggi changed his mind. Robert Maxwell offered to buy the boat with four stories.
The Dutch shipyard invited his daughter to smash the champagne bottle against the hull. The Lady Ghislaine was thus renamed.
Ghislaine was set up with her own company — Maxwell Corporate Gifts. Her father started The European newspaper in May 1990. She gave her a consulting role.
She was then dispatched to New York as ‘emissary’ for her father as he bought the city’s ailing Daily News. She was given a Central Park apartment by her father. However, she was determined to have thick skin. While she remained Daddy’s girl, he often crushed her.
In his book Maxwell: The Final Verdict, Tom Bower described how Ghislaine, then 29, was reduced to tears and had to write her father a pitiful note of apology for failing to – in his eyes – adequately report a dinner in New York she had attended on his behalf. ‘I am very sorry my description of the dinner … made you angry,’ she wrote. ‘Please forgive me.’
This undated photograph, submitted by the government as evidence of the case, shows the pair sitting on the ground with a dog.
It was unquestionable that her ability to nurture people was unparalleled. Years later, after the Epstein scandal had first broken and he went briefly to jail, the writer Vicky Ward would declare: ‘I like her. New Yorkers love her. It’s almost impossible not to.
‘She is always the most interesting, the most vivacious, the most unusual person in any room. Her Rolodex would blow away almost anyone else’s I can think of.’
A photograph taken at a London party on June 21, 1991 seems to best capture Ghislaine Maxill’s essence as she enters her 30s. The family had already conquered the entire world. Just moments ago, she turned aside from Susannah Constantine and Rolling Stone Mick Jagger. It is apparent that she feels rapture. But unknown to her — and the world — Daddy’s empire was billions of dollars in debt and about to fall apart. Cap’n Bob was desperately laundering money and pension funds to stave off bankruptcy.
The Recovery from Disaster
When Robert Maxwell went overboard from the Lady Ghislaine off the Canary Islands in November 1991, the extent of his theft became clear, not least the £426 million hole in the Mirror pension fund.
However, she stood behind her father. He had given her a trust fund tied to a Lichtenstein banking. These payments were continued long after Maxwell’s collapse. In an interview with Vanity Fair the following year Ghislaine said: ‘He wasn’t a crook – a thief, to me, is someone who steals money. What do you think happened to my father? No.’
Epstein is seen with Ghislaine wrapped around his arm as he makes a call to this evidence photo.
According to the prosecution, Maxwell and Epstein were referred to as ‘partners of crime’. In this evidence photo, Maxwell can be seen cuddling up with Epstein in the photos.
She had moved to New York by then. She told Vanity Fair: ‘We’ll be back. Watch this space.’ And by late 1992 she had met her father’s replacement: Epstein. By 1996, ‘broke’ Ghislaine was the queen bee of Manhattan again, rubbing shoulders with the great and good and spending a reported £20,000 a month on her Visa card alone.
A ‘friend’ reportedly said her dependence on Epstein was ‘pretty total’ but that ‘he can treat her very well or very badly. She is bullied and treated well by him. He can be impatient, demanding and extremely critical’.
This sounded very familiar.
Epstein is now dead. Maxwell will have to answer the public for all of their paedophile abuse. She was not approached by anyone from her past who wanted to talk on record. One exception.
Jonathan Aitken has known the Maxwells since the 1960s, when he was close to Ghislaine’s sister Anne. His own downfall was when he was sentenced to prison for perjury as well as perverting the course or justice. Ghislaine’s niece wrote to him every week when he was behind barsHe said: ‘Ghislaine was the daughter of a dictator, tyrant, king. But I think there’s something good about her, despite what else was said in court. Her father was a man she trusted more than she ought to have. And I think she did the same with Epstein.’