Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial brought attention to the lives of her siblings, who supported her publically and put their reputations at risk.
Ghislaine was accompanied by her sister Isabel, and brother Kevin. While brother Ian frequently criticised her prosecution as well as the conditions that she endured while in custody on remand, brother Ian also attended court.
They stood with her, in a firm gesture of support from the family.
A jury consisting of six men, six women and five jurors found her guilty of five of the six charges.
This verdict was the culmination of a month-long trial that featured sordid stories of sexual exploitation of young girls, as young as 14. These accounts were told by four women who said they were abused in their teens at Epstein’s homes in Florida and New York.
Maxwell was found guilty by five jury members after they deliberated five days. Maxwell was silent behind her black mask as the verdict came out. As the jury was called, Maxwell stood, her hands crossed, and looked at her siblings. She was, however, stoic.
Maxwell faces years of imprisonment – something that women have long fought to achieve.
Maxwell had been argued by the defense to be a victim in a vindictive case. This was to ensure justice for women who lost their main antagonist when Epstein died in 2019 while they waited to go on trial.
Epstein and Maxwell’s legal disputes aren’t over.
Maxwell is still being tried on perjury charges.
There are also ongoing lawsuits regarding the allegations of abuse. Virginia Giuffre is a non-participant in one. She claims she was coerced to sexual encounters between Prince Andrew and her 17-year old self. Andrew denies her claim and the lawsuit won’t be heard in court for some time.
One of my family friends commented before the verdict that blood is thicker then water and this means that Maxwells can stick together through thick or thin.
“Ghislaine” is loved by her siblings and their sisters, and the family has been loyal to her since childhood.
“It shouldn’t surprise that Isabel and Kevin have publicly supported Ian.
‘Obviously they had nothing to do with her relationship with Epstein, and it would have been easy to leave her to her fate – but that is not how the Maxwells operate.
They claim Epstein sucked her in his web and that her prosecution was an effort to make an example of him because he couldn’t face justice.
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 (17 at the time) was studying grammar school together with Christine (3) and their youngest son Kevin (8 at preparatory). Anne (2) was still studying at St Hugh’s College while Philip (1, the second oldest) had already entered his second undergraduate year at Balliol College.
Ghislaine and six of her siblings, living or deceased, visited Ghislaine in June 2019, (pictured left). Ian Maxwell (her older brother) shared this photo with her in March 2021. Ghislaine, with Scott Borgerson her husband, was captured by Jeffrey Epstein a month later. L-R: Anne, Kevin and twins Isabel, Christine and Philip. Ian is the father.
Christine Maxwell and Ian Maxwell arrive Monday at New York’s courthouse as brothers and sisters to Ghislaine Maxwell.
Robert Maxwell and his favourite daughter Ghislaine, while they watched the Oxford vs Brighton soccer match on October 24, 1984.
Ghislaine was just one chapter of the rollercoaster story that her family has been on, which included her father Robert Maxwell, a corrupt publishing tycoon.
Her father who owned the Daily Mirror died aged 68 in November 1991 after he tumbled into the Atlantic from his luxury yacht Lady Ghislaine – named after his youngest daughter.
Following revelations that he was embezzling hundreds of million of pounds from employee pension funds, the family had to take over his crumbling business empire.
Ghislaine was a British socialite who died in 1959. Her six survivors had to bear the weight of the legacy. It is still considered a mystery.
Kevin, 62, became the UK’s biggest ever bankrupt when a £407 million bankruptcy order was made against him in 1992 due to his role in his bullying father’s business.
He and Ian, 65, who had assumed control of their father’s companies stood trial for their alleged part in his £460 million pension fraud.
They were acquitted in 1996 after an Old Bailey trial which cost taxpayers £12 million, although their family name was besmirched for many years.
Isabel (71 years old) and her twin sister Christine made fortunes from dot.com’s early technology companies. But in 2015, Isabel was bankrupted by a British court.
In the same year, her personal life was also affected by tragedy when Al Seckel (Illusionist) died from a fall close to their French home.
They had been married in Malibu, California in 2007 but the marriage was not legalized as he is still legally married to his first wife.
In 2006 interview, Isabel shared how she faced life’s challenges and said: “I learned to not run from the bad times.”
“Personal tragedy and loss can connect you to the events in this world… I am an survivor with an inherent fire that won’t let me go.
She described how her family was close to her and that she was able to share her feelings with them.
Ghislaine had Ghislaine as her only relative, so Isabel stood just yards from Ghislaine in the gallery and waved at her with support.
It was a common sight to see her walk in and out the courtroom every day wearing one of her iconic berets, which she wore to keep away the cold of New York winter.
Robert Maxwell is seen in this photo speaking with the media and at the Football Writing Association, 1990
Kevin was at court for several days, and even sat with Isabel in artist’s impression drawings of Ghislaine.
Outside the Manhattan court, he complained to reporters about the harsh conditions that she had to live in during her case.
Kevin stated that Kevin had been taking Kevin to court, and she was not being properly fed. He also forced her to wear shackles. This left Kevin bloody and bruised.
He stated that he had requested the US Attorney General Merrick Grland to take over her case in order to ensure that she got food.
Kevin said that his sister was bound from the time she left Metropolitan Detention Centre to when she reached court and again on her return journey.
He stated, “She is forced to climb up and down the stairs in the shackles and it hurts her.”
“She has been bruised and she’s even bleeding, so you have to wonder in 2021 what the hell they are doing to a 59 year old woman like her in such a way each day, when she is absolutely not threatening to the community.
He stated that she had been put on trial and was being held responsible for the food she ate. On her first day she got a hardboiled egg. If it’s not moldy she gets a piece of bread. Kraft slices, an apple, and maybe some bananas.
“That’s literally all she needs from 6.30 – 7.30 p.m. when she returns to the detention center. This is just insufficient sustenance.
“We don’t get how people can ignore this problem.”
Ghislaine was supported by her brother Ian, who gave interviews in which he claimed that Ghislaine faced an unfair trial. He said: “My sister isn’t a monster.”
He said she was “targeted” for US prosecution because of her shame over Jeffrey Epstein’s death while held.
Ian was also critical of her time in remand. He described it as “500 days effective solitary isolation at that evil place”, adding that she’s been “weakened, drained, and hollowed-out”.
Robert Maxwell was a father to nine children and his wife Elisabeth Betty ‘Betty’ Meynard. He was known as a bully and tyrannical, but he loved Ghislaine.
Elisabeth spoke in 1995 about how she had recreated the Holocaust-era family of her husband.
Ghislaine lost two of her siblings in an early death. She went on to live a luxurious lifestyle, as Prince Andrew’s friend and Epstein partner. He was later exposed as a paedophile.
Portraits of her sisters and brothers reveal their lives.
Michael, the tragedy first-born son who was killed in his 20s
Michael was the second child to be born after his parents divorced in 1945. However, he passed away at age 23.
Aged 15, he was seriously injured in a car accident when the driver of his family fell asleep on the road. It happened 48 hours after Ghislaine was born.
Michael was in a coma for eight years and did not regain consciousness. He died eight years later.
Philip, 73 years old, was a brilliant scientist who fled Argentina to become a doctor.
Poor Philip (left in 1971), as his friends called him, was an eminent scientist and mathematician. He won a scholarship at Balliol College Oxford aged 16. He moved to Argentina. He is currently unknown but was reunited with his siblings in 2019 (right).
Philip, a genius scientist and mathematician, was just 16 years old when he won a scholarship at Balliol College in Oxford.
He hated his father so much that he fled Argentina to escape him [him] as possible’.
He married Nilda in Argentina, against his father’s will, and the couple 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. What is the matter? The subject’s bullying father.
For a 2019 London reunion, he was reunited with his siblings
Anne was ex-actress and called ugly by her father
Anne Maxwell, Anne’s eldest child, dreamed about becoming an actress and then retraining to become a teacher. Because of her beauty, she was subject to bullying from her father. Photo taken in 1968.
Anne studied French and Italian at Oxford. She worked as a writer on a series of television shows before she gave up her stardom dreams.
Her dad was quick to respond when she lost her promising acting career. Your acting career is both failing and ugly.
Then, she trained as an educator in Montessori, and then married an osteopath. She is currently a hypnotherapist working under another name in Surrey.
After the death of her father at the tender age of 68, she has been quiet.
Robert Maxwell (second from left) and Elisabeth Maxwell (second right), along with their two children Anne, and Philip.
Isabel (71), a fireball who lost her Internet fortune
Isabel lost an estimated £50million that she made during the dotcom boom with her sister
Isabel, her twin sister Christine, and Maisons Laffitte in France were both born on August 16, 1950.
Her family moved to Oxford in 1960 from Headington Hill Hall where Robert Maxwell’s Pergamon Press offices were.
According to her mother, Isabel’s family was Anglican and Isabel was raised Anglican. However, Isabel loved the Jewish religion and politics of Israel.
Her high achievement was evident from an early age. Later, she told an interviewer that she saw the possibility for anyone to succeed. [be successful]. It was done by my father, who never went to school.
After being a student at Milham Ford School Oxford, she went on to St Hilda’s College Oxford.
After receiving her MA in Law, History and French, in 1972 she went on to receive a master’s in Education (French), from the University of Edinburgh.
Her father was her first producer in television and film production.
Her first movie, an adaptation from the book Jonathan Livingston Seagull was made in 1973.
The second documentary, which was a document on lesbians, was produced in 1980. It was broadcast in the UK on TV.
She moved to California in 1981 to become a TV producer, and then she made a 1968 film starring Neil Young. “It wasn’t ET,” she stated. . . More a labor of love.
In 1984 she wed Dale Djerassi (affiliate of Djerassi Resident Artists Program, son birth control pill inventor Carl Djerassi), a filmmaker.
Alexander, Alexander’s brother, was born that same year. They divorced in 1989.
She left the film business in 1990 and moved to Berkeley with her sister Christine to start a data company.
The Jerusalem Post labelled Isabel as a fireball and someone who is always in your face.
In the same year she was married to David Hayden, a dot-com entrepreneur.
In 1991 her world fell apart when her father was killed. She spoke out about the chaos that surrounded her family in 1991, saying: “In the year after his death, I made nine visits to England to assist my mother.
Cameras were always with us. To fend off photographers, I carried a tennis racket.
Christine, her twin, co-founded Magellan in 1992, one of the first internet search engines.
According to The Daily Beast, Michael Wolff has included the sister in his book Burn Rate.
It describes Christine’s commanding nature as his sister.
Isabel stated that in 1997, her sister “the idea of rating and reviewing” had been suggested to her.
McKinley Group was formed and the company became a search engine that has ratings.
While her husband David was the CEO, and Christine, her sister, was the publisher, she served as senior vice president.
Magellan was launched by the Maxwell Sisters in September 1995.
Christine fled the company one year later after David left due to increasing financial difficulties.
Isabel and her marriage began to deteriorate, eventually leading to divorce.
They sold the company for shares in a rival firm Excite — which rocketed in value, giving the sisters a joint £100 million fortune and landing them a place on the Sunday Times Rich list in 1999.
Isabel regretted that the sale was a success, and felt it had cooled their relationship.
She was elected President of Commtouch in 1997. This Israeli internet company became CYREN. A position she held until 2001.
Blumberg Capital invited her to be CEO of iCognito (renamed Puresight), an Israeli content filtering and software company.
The company was saved by her efforts and sold to Boston Communications in 2005.
Her business was flourishing but her personal life was on the rise.
Al Seckel, an illusionist, and Isabel were supposedly married in Malibu in 2007. However, their marriage was not legalized because he forgot to cancel the third of his three prior marriages to Denice Lewis. Denice Lewis is a former model, who has appeared in videos featuring Cliff Richard, Bryan Ferry and Elton John.
Al Seckel was once an important player on the Californian literary and academic scene.
Isabel Maxwell is left, wearing a cap, Kevin and Ian stand right outside of the federal courtshouse on Monday night.
His reputation for throwing parties for the rich and famous was legendary. Jeffrey Epstein was, according to some reports, a close friend.
The two men organized a conference on science called Mindshift in 2009 at Epstein’s island Little Saint James.
Seckel was also guilty of forgetting to repay numerous debts over time, which resulted into endless legal proceedings.
They moved from Malibu in California to France to take care of Maxwell’s mother.
They lived in Chateau De la Malartrie in La Roque-Gageac.
Seckel was found unconscious on a cliff in 2015 near his home, Saint-Cirq-Lapopie.
After Seckel’s passing, Isabel was declared bankrupt in Britain by a court
Although she still lives in southern France, she has kept her profile low.
Christine, 71, dotcom boom millionaire
Christine amassed a £100million fortune during the dotcom boom
Christine started in the family business, and she spent many years working for her dad. Christine even published a bestseller book about Pergamon.
She attended Milham Ford School, Oxford. In 1972, she graduated from Pitzer College Claremont with a Bachelor’s degree in Latin American Studies.
Maxwell, who was born September 1973 at Oxford Brookes University’s Lady Spencer Churchill College of Education, received a post-graduate teaching certificate in the next year.
After graduating from Texas Tech, she received a Master’s Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies.
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. This title was a bestseller worldwide and many times reprinted.
As her twin sister, success in the Dotcom Boom dominated the 1980s/90s.
Christine purchased Information on Demand (one of the earliest information brokers) in 1982. Research on Demand was later renamed.
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 married Roger Malina (an astrophysicist) and they have three kids.
Christine is listed on Linked In as a Program Manager of Learning Technologies, The University of Texas. She also works with big data company Techtonic Insight Inc.
Karine died from leukemia as a child
Robert and Elisabeth had a sixth child. Karine died in 1957 from leukemia.
The parents’ grief at her death had an impact on how they would view Ghislaine, their next child, four years later.
Ian Maxwell spoke out to explain how Karine’s sudden death upset the balance between ‘four boys’ and ‘four girls’ in a conversation.
“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. It was Christmas Day that she was born, which added to her sense of wonder.
Ian (65), the “fall guy” who protects his sister
Ian was made to laugh at his dad as he grew older and taunted incessantly by him.
He decided to continue with the family business but he continued to be treated poorly and was often compared to Kevin, his younger brother.
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.
Ian pictured with his wife Laura at court on the first day of his trial, where he and his brother were accused of taking at least £122million worth of pension funds
Robert Maxwell pictured with his son Ian (left), who was taunted mercilessly by his father, and youngest son Kevin (right), who became Britain’s biggest ever bankrupt when a £407million bankruptcy order was made against him
The Maxwells were not acquitted. However, the Maxwell name was in tatters for several years. There were no overseas business opportunities.
Ian was married to Laura Marie Plumb, an American college basketball player and model.
She met her husband when she came to London to set up TV Cable.
The couple married in 1991 — the year of Robert Maxwell’s death — and the ensuing media attention put Laura under great strain. Her sobbing was captured on the same day as Kevin and Ian were arrested. They divorced in 1996.
He married Tara Dudley Smith next, who was the daughter of an ex-Army officer and Jockey Club steward. That relationship ended too. 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.
Ian was photographed driving a moped in a suit with a tie while wearing his formal attire. He and his brother founded an organization three years ago in the midst of the Greek financial crisis. It has raised millions of euro to rescue several hundred companies.
They launched an organization in Greece similar to Prince’s Trust in Greece three years ago in middle of financial crisis. It has since raised many millions of Euros and assisted in the launch of several hundred companies.
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.
This March, Epstein told The Times Epstein that his young daughter Ghislaine had been destroyed and that she was responsible for US authorities failing to prosecute.
Kevin (62), Britain’s largest ever bankrupt
Kevin, who was the smartest and most important son of his family, said that his father had died. He also regretted the loss, saying that his father’s presence and his ability to rule were a big part of his life. He confessed to feeling completely in awe.
Publicly, he expressed regret for his father’s sins and referred to the “moral burden” he will carry for the rest my life.
Pandora Warnford Davis, his first wife, called Robert the fat fraudster her father-in law’.
When Kevin was arrested in June 1992 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!’ Only to realize that the callers in the morning were police.
In 1992, hundreds of million dollars had vanished from Maxwell Empire’s employee pension funds. Kevin was then arrested and charged for fraud
Kevin (left) became Britain’s biggest ever bankrupt when a £407million bankruptcy order was made against him in 2007. (Right) Kevin shortly after becoming bankrupt.
After 23 years of marriage and seven children, the couple split in 2007. Pandora last saw her living in Oxford and renting a room via 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.
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 story. But it was not.
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.
In 2011, his venture was ruined when he was removed from the board of directors for 8 years.