The Story of Ghislane Maxwell and Her Dad

Summary

Infamous Podcast Episode Summary: "The Story of Ghislaine Maxwell and Her Dad"

Introduction

In this gripping episode of Infamous, hosted by Vanessa Grigoriadis alongside Gabriel Sherman and Natalie Robehmed, the narrative delves deep into the complex and tumultuous lives of Ghislaine Maxwell and her father, Robert Maxwell. Vanessa sets the stage by highlighting the enduring intrigue surrounding Ghislaine Maxwell, particularly in relation to the controversial Jeffrey Epstein case. She introduces the episode as part of "The Power," a series produced by Campside Media and Sony Music Entertainment, aimed at uncovering the intricate dynamics that shaped Maxwell's rise and fall.

Vanessa [00:35]: "From high-profile divorces to sex cults to the lies that started a war, they’ll guide you through the juiciest, most outrageous, celeb-filled stories of the last two decades."

Ghislaine Maxwell’s Arrest and Public Speculation

The episode opens with a dramatic recount of Ghislaine Maxwell’s arrest, nearly a year after Jeffrey Epstein was taken into custody. The hosts describe the frenzy that ensued, with widespread rumors about her whereabouts ranging from Paris to Russia. However, the truth was more mundane—Maxwell was apprehended in a secluded mansion in Bradford, New Hampshire.

Reporter [03:17]: "FBI agents arrested Ghislaine Maxwell nearly one year to the day after Epstein was arrested."

This section underscores the elusive nature of Maxwell’s movements and the intense media scrutiny that surrounded her, culminating in her eventual capture.

Introducing Robert Maxwell: The Tycoon Father

To truly understand Ghislaine Maxwell’s trajectory, the podcast shifts focus to her father, Robert Maxwell—a towering figure in the media world. Born into poverty in Central Europe, Maxwell rose to prominence as a newspaper tycoon, establishing a vast publishing empire that rivaled Rupert Murdoch’s. His meteoric rise and eventual mysterious death in 1991 are pivotal in shaping the family’s legacy.

Roy Greenslade [12:48]: "Of all the children, he was the most indulgent with Ghislaine, the youngest."

Robert Maxwell’s influence extended beyond business; he maintained strong ties with global leaders and intelligence agencies, a fact that adds layers of intrigue to his and his daughter’s stories.

Family Dynamics and Upbringing

The narrative delves into the Maxwell family’s internal dynamics, highlighting the favoritism Robert exhibited towards Ghislaine. Unlike her brothers, who were deeply involved in the family business, Ghislaine was given privileges and attention that set her apart. This favoritism is portrayed as a double-edged sword, fostering both her privileges and the psychological burdens she carried.

Roy Greenslade [13:25]: "He allowed her a license, I think he'd not given to the others, but. And she was very clever with him."

Anecdotes from colleagues paint a vivid picture of Robert Maxwell’s domineering personality. For instance, his unpredictable temper and impulsive decisions are illustrated through stories of him abruptly firing employees or making bizarre phone calls.

Colleague [12:22]: "He was on a loudspeaker... and he just said, meow... What are you doing?"

These stories highlight an environment of fear and unpredictability, which likely had a profound impact on Ghislaine’s development and worldview.

A Complex Relationship: Adoration and Control

The podcast explores the nuanced relationship between Ghislaine and Robert Maxwell, characterized by both adoration and control. Maxwell’s deep affection for Ghislaine was evident, yet it was intertwined with manipulative and controlling behavior. This duality may have contributed to Ghislaine’s later actions and affiliations.

Robert Maxwell [09:48]: "What is Mr. Gorbachev would invade anywhere without calling me first?"

Maxwell’s contradictions—admiration juxtaposed with authoritarianism—are portrayed as influential factors in Ghislaine’s upbringing and personality.

Ghislaine Maxwell’s Early Career and Struggles

While her brothers were entrusted with significant roles within the Maxwell empire, Ghislaine’s career was marked by less success and clarity. Attempts to establish a corporate gift business under Maxwell's auspices failed to gain traction, reflecting perhaps the lack of genuine support and guidance she received.

Roy Greenslade [15:15]: "He allowed her a license... she was very clever with him."

Despite her affluent background, Ghislaine’s inability to find her footing professionally hints at deeper personal and psychological struggles.

Encounter with Christina Oxenberg: A Turning Point

A pivotal moment in the episode is Christina Oxenberg’s recount of her encounters with Ghislaine Maxwell. Christina’s initial negative impression—stemming from a manipulative introduction at a wedding—sets the tone for their fraught relationship.

Christina Oxenberg [25:06]: "I realized, oh yeah, I met this bitch once before and I didn't like her."

Their subsequent meeting after Maxwell’s father’s death reveals a more vulnerable side of Ghislaine, yet Christina remains wary of her true intentions. This interaction serves as a microcosm of the complex and often conflicting portrayals of Maxwell.

Robert Maxwell’s Mysterious Death and Its Aftermath

The episode delves into the circumstances surrounding Robert Maxwell’s disappearance and the discovery of his body near Tenerife. Maxwell’s death remains shrouded in mystery, with speculation about foul play versus suicide. His legacy, tainted by financial corruption and the missing £400 million from the Mirror pension fund, adds an ominous backdrop to Ghislaine’s story.

Reporter [35:32]: "Robert Maxwell was born into extreme poverty in Central Europe... but when he died, he was buried in the Mount of Olives in Israel, holy ground usually reserved for prophets, rabbis and great statesmen."

The fallout from his death profoundly affected the Maxwell family, particularly Ghislaine, who found herself navigating a world devoid of her father's influence and control.

Ghislaine Maxwell: From Socialite to Controversial Figure

Post her father's death, Ghislaine Maxwell's life took a dramatic turn. Once a celebrated socialite with access to global elites, she became embroiled in one of the most notorious scandals of the century. The episode hints at psychological fractures and the possible influence of her upbringing in her involvement with Jeffrey Epstein.

Vanessa [34:22]: "When Robert Maxwell died in 1991, he left behind a legacy that was almost as big as his ego. But maybe the biggest mark he left on the world was his daughter, Ghislaine."

This transition from privilege to infamy is portrayed as a complex interplay of personal choices, inherited instability, and perhaps unresolved childhood issues stemming from her relationship with her father.

Conclusion and Future Episodes

The episode concludes by setting the stage for the ensuing episodes of "The Power," which promise to further unravel Robert Maxwell’s rise and fall, and how these events intertwined with Ghislaine Maxwell’s descent into infamy. Listeners are left with a nuanced understanding of the Maxwell family, emphasizing that much of the controversy surrounding Ghislaine cannot be disentangled from her father's imposing legacy.

Vanessa [34:22]: "Over the next six episodes, we're going to tell you the story of Robert Maxwell and maybe then we can make more sense of where Ghislaine has ended up."

Notable Quotes

• Vanessa [00:35]: "From high-profile divorces to sex cults to the lies that started a war..."
• Roy Greenslade [15:15]: "He allowed her a license... she was very clever with him."
• Christina Oxenberg [25:06]: "I realized, oh yeah, I met this bitch once before and I didn't like her."
• Vanessa [34:22]: "When Robert Maxwell died in 1991... maybe the biggest mark he left on the world was his daughter, Ghislaine."

Final Thoughts

This episode of Infamous masterfully intertwines personal anecdotes, historical context, and investigative journalism to present a comprehensive portrait of Ghislaine Maxwell and her father, Robert Maxwell. Through engaging storytelling and insightful analysis, the hosts provide listeners with a deeper understanding of the factors that shaped one of the most controversial figures of the modern era.

Transcript

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Campsite Media.

[Vanessa]

Hey everyone, Vanessa here. Thank you so much for coming back to Infamous. This week we are going to play a episode about Ghislaine Maxwell. I'm sure you've noticed that she's in the news a lot now, talking about is there going to be a presidential pardon? Is she going to actually testify in front of Congress? What exactly is going on with the Jeffrey Epstein story in 2025? Which is, by the way, a long time since we started talking about this story, but it seems like it still has a lot of twists and turns and a lot of things to uncover. So I really love this podcast. It's called the Power and it's about the Maxwells. It's season one of this series called the Power that comes out from Sony Music Entertainment, which also makes our show. So we thought we would play that episode. You're going to learn about Ghislaine and her father, who is called a real life Logan Roy. In the episode, he was a huge newspaper tycoon in London. Even though he had come from absolutely nothing, he raised Ghislaine as his favorite. She was daddy's girl and. And she turned into not a very nice person. Interestingly considering that Jeffrey Epstein died under somewhat mysterious circumstances in prison. Her father also died under what was thought to be potentially a suicide under mysterious circumstances as well. So please listen to this episode and we will be back next week with a whole new infamous episode hosted by Nat, Natalie and me. Thanks again.

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It was one of those days where you remember exactly where you were. On July 2, 2020, I was in Charleston, South Carolina, on vacation. I'd been out for drinks the night before and I was feeling pretty dead. I was walking my dog, Pancetta, when I got this text message that nearly made me drop the leash. It's happening, the message said. It was from my colleague, Emily Saul, who used to be a court reporter for the New York Post. She'd got a tip off from a source at the Southern District of New York that she should rush to the courthouse. They were putting together an impromptu press conference at noon and it was going to be big she didn't know what was happening for sure, but I had a feeling. And then it happened.

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FBI agents arrested Ghislaine Maxwell nearly one year to the day after Epstein was arrested.

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Today, we announced charges against Ghislaine Maxwell.

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For helping Jeffrey Epstein sexually exploit and abuse multiple minor girls from the period.

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Of 1994 through 1997. Where is Jeffrey Epstein's former girlfriend?

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She's vanished.

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Where in the world was Ghislaine Maxwell? Each week, there were new rumors about Ghislaine's whereabouts. Someone thought they spotted her in Paris. There was a sketchy photo of her at an In N Out burger in la. Was she in Israel or Brazil?

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If I were to take a guess, I would guess that she is in Russia.

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But her true location proved to be a little more normal.

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Early this morning, Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested in Bradford, New Hampshire.

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A team of FBI Officers raided a $1 million mansion appropriately named Tucked Away. The real estate listing calls it an amazing retreat for the nature lover who wants total privacy.

[Unknown Speaker 7]

And more recently, we learned she had slithered away to a gorgeous property in New Hampshire, continuing to live a life of privilege while her victims live with the trauma inflicted upon them years ago.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

While traveling around the country reporting on Epstein's victims, I heard so many stories about Ghislaine, but she still remains a mystery to me. I mean, she had absolutely everything in the world. Connections, money, power. But she allegedly ended up recruiting underage girls for a sex offender. Now she sits in a Brooklyn jail cell awaiting trial. Then I started to hear stories about Ghislaine's family. A family steeped in power and drama. And at the head of it was her father, Robert Maxwell.

[Unknown Speaker 8]

My mother's ideas were instilled in me. She told a relative many years ago, my son will be famous someday. I just feel it and I know it.

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A real life Logan Roy, a media tycoon worth millions who came from nothing, ended up with everything, and then died under mysterious circumstances in 1991.

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Now back to tonight's main news. The disappearance of the publisher, Robert Maxwell. Within the last few minutes, rescue services have reported finding a body.

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And if he was alive today, he might well be in the same place as his daughter. A jail cell.

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One of Maxwell's biggest debts is the £400 million or so missing from the Mirror pension fund.

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I realized that to understand how Ghislaine has ended up where she is today and why she did what she did, we need to go deeper into her past, to her upbringing. So that's what this season of Power is all about going back to the beginning and discovering the man who put the Maxwell family on this crazy road. Robert Maxwell I'm Tara Palmeri and from something else, this is Power. The Maxwells Episode 1 Daddy Issues.

[Vanessa]

What.

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[Unknown Speaker 8]

What is my secret? I will let you and your viewers know what it is.

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Robert Maxwell was born into extreme poverty in Central Europe.

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We didn't have enough to eat. I've only had three years primary education.

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He was an Orthodox Jew who escaped the Holocaust. He was a war hero, a British Member of Parliament. And then he built a publishing empire from scratch.

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Today, our group is internationally recognized as one of the world's ten leading global publishers.

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As a newspaper tycoon with publications in London and New York, he was second only to his nemesis, Rupert Murdoch.

[Unknown Speaker 8]

Play win a million in the Daily Mirror. I guarantee you will all get a fair and equal chance to play and win one of our millions.

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There were the yachts, the private jets and the oversized ego.

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Call me back. I'm in the plane.

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He had the ear of world leaders.

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He said, do you think Mr. Gorbachev would invade anywhere without calling me first?

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When he died, he was buried in the Mount of Olives in Israel, holy ground usually reserved for prophets, rabbis and great statesmen. And maybe he was a great statesman to some people, but certainly not to everyone.

[Unknown Speaker 5]

Colorful. Larger than life. That is just a complete bastard.

[Unknown Speaker 8]

Jesus. Now that's unwelcome visitor. Fuck off.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

He was a giant of a man with an insatiable appetite for the finer things in life.

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He used to wipe his bottom on the hand towels. He never used to use toilet paper.

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He allegedly worked with the world's biggest intelligence agencies.

[Unknown Speaker 7]

Have you ever had any dealings with the Israeli intelligence service?

[Unknown Speaker 8]

Certainly not. It's outrageous.

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And then there was the small matter of financial corruption.

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He had taken money from his employees. Future robbed their future.

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A revelation that really only emerged after his death. And nearly 30 years later, we're still trying to make sense of how he died.

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The millionaire publisher of the Daily Mirror, Robert Maxwell, has been reported missing from his motor yacht off the Canary Islands. Well, we've just heard from the Air Sea Rescue center at Madrid that a body has been found.

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Robert Maxwell was married to a French woman named Elizabeth, but everyone called her Betty. Over 15 years, she gave birth to nine children. Seven of them are still alive. One of the daughters died of leukemia at the age of three. The eldest boy was in a horrific car accident when he was 15 and remained in a coma until his death in 1968. By a weird twist of fate, the accident took place just two days after Ghislaine was born on Christmas Day 1961. As the youngest, Ghislaine quickly became Daddy's little girl.

[Unknown Speaker 4]

I saw. Witnessed quite a few things because I was like. He just ignored me. I was just there, like. Like, you know, just there. And I was invisible.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

That's Carol Bregoli. She worked as a secretary at Maxwell's Central London headquarters. And she saw some of the private moments most people didn't get to. Robert was hoovering up companies around the globe while Ghislaine was living it up as a socialite in her 20s.

[Unknown Speaker 4]

He was on a loudspeaker. The receptionist said, Ghislaine, Mr. Maxwell. And he picked up the phone and he just said, meow. And she went, meow, meow. And he went, meow. And it went on like that for about a minute, I think. And then I think he said something like, what are you doing? And she says, nothing. Just a nothing call, really. Just a meowing call. Yeah.

[Unknown Speaker 7]

Of all the children, he was the most indulgent with Ghislaine, the youngest.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

That's Roy Greenslade. He's one of Robert Maxwell's biographers and he edited Robert Maxwell's Daily Mirror, one of the UK's biggest selling tabloid papers. We're gonna hear a lot more from him over the series.

[Unknown Speaker 7]

He allowed her a license, I think he'd not given to the others, but. And she was very clever with him. She had learned to deal with him, to giggle, to make him smile, to indulge him, to smother him with kisses and to be very attentive.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

When she wasn't meowing on the phone. Ghislaine was a pretty regular fixture in the office. It was the late 80s, she was in her 20s and had recently graduated from the University of Oxford.

[Unknown Speaker 4]

She'd swan into the office occasionally. She'd perch herself on the edge of my. Of my desk with her long, lovely legs swinging them, and she'd say to me, got any fags, Carol?

[Unknown Speaker 2]

That's cigarettes.

[Unknown Speaker 4]

I'd say, yeah, help yourself. She'd take the packet and would never give it back to me.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

Robert Maxwell wasn't exactly the easiest boss. Don't even think about slocking.

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We see. Creep up behind me and say to me, what are you doing?

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You never knew what his next strange request would be. One day he barged in and demanded a dictation in French.

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And I said to him, I'm sorry, Mr. Maxwell, I don't speak French.

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Decades before Donald Trump hosted the Apprentice, Maxwell was notorious for his short temper and for impulsively ending people's careers.

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So he thumped the table. Maxwell. And he's. I don't pay you to tell me what I can't do. You tell me what I can do. He said, you're fired.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

But for Carroll, this was an exciting place to work. And it wasn't just because of the champagne happy hour that the butler served every Friday. Maxwell owned half a stake in MTV Europe, and all sorts of people would come into the office once he was negotiating to buy a soccer club which was then owned by a famous pop star.

[Unknown Speaker 4]

Elton John was wanting to sell it at the time, and his manager was very difficult to deal with and wanted Maxwell to go to Elton John to sign the contract. And Maxwell doesn't go anywhere, you know, he just doesn't go anywhere to sign. They come to him. So there was this standoff.

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Elton John's manager rang the office. He was furious. One of Carol's colleagues answered the phone.

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Mr. John will not go anywhere to sign. Maxwell comes to him and blah, blah, blah. And she just said, cool as a cucumber. She said, well, do you have the right orifice to the phone? Because all I'm getting down this line is a lot of shit. And put the phone down. So then Elton John came in and signed the contract.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

Being Daddy's little girl set Ghislaine apart from her siblings. Her older brothers, Kevin and Ian were already working hard within the Maxwell organization, whereas Ghislaine was getting a different sort of reputation.

[Unknown Speaker 4]

I don't think she's ever worked at what you call worked at one stage. He did set her up in a business, a gift gift business, Corporate gifts. So she had a beautiful catalog printed with all these very expensive corporate gifts.

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Things like silver ballpoint pens and bottles of champagne. Carol remembers buying a huge silver diaper pin for a colleague's baby. It was engraved with the child's name.

[Unknown Speaker 4]

And of course, you know, Maxwell would expect everyone he knew in business to buy them off her, so she didn't have to go out and sell it. She just had to say whose daughter she was. And they sold themselves, I expect.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

But it wasn't really working out for Ghislaine. It was clear to most people that Maxwell Corporate Gifts was an unprofitable vanity project, just something to keep Daddy's little girl occupied while her brothers Kevin and Ian were entrusted with running more important parts of the family business. There's a story in one of the many books written about Maxwell, this one by the late journalist Nicholas Davies, about a phone call Ghislaine made to her father. There was no meowing this time. Ghislaine was visiting New York and was thinking of dropping in on Donald Trump to sell him some of her corporate gifts. She asked her father if he would phone Trump to set up a meeting, as they were friends. But Maxwell said, have you got your bum in your head? Why the Fuck would Donald Trump want to waste his time seeing you with your crap crappy gifts when he has a multi million dollar business to run? Roy Greenslade remembers a party he attended when he was editor of the Mirror. It was at Headington Hill House, the mansion where the Maxwell family lived in Oxford.

[Unknown Speaker 7]

I saw them around in the office, but to see them still in his presence, all of them together, always looking in a sense to their mother for some form of protection or whatever, I think then one realized how monstrous he could be in terms of his own children.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

Here's an example. In Roy's book about Maxwell, he writes about how mealtimes were particularly fraught. Robert, Betty and the seven kids would sit around this enormous table in their lavish mansion every Sunday for a classic British Sunday lunch. Then Maxwell would grill each child in turn to make sure they were learning enough at school. Once, he reduced Ghislaine to tears because she failed to define the word theocracy.

[Unknown Speaker 7]

And that really, I think, made their lives a complete misery, completely unlike, I think, many other children. It was an abuse of kind, psychological abuse.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

This kind of abuse wasn't confined to just their childhood, despite Ghislaine's status as Daddy's little girl. Robert once had the locks changed on his personal kitchen because he found out that Ghislaine had popped in for a snack. This controlling behavior seems especially ruthless when you learn that Ghislaine was anorexic. As a child, Maxwell needed to dominate everyone, whether it was his staff or his family. While Maxwell could treat his favorite daughter with absolute disdain, on the other hand, his affection for her could be effusive. Once, Roy, then the editor of the Daily Mirror, was in a meeting with Maxwell in his 10th floor drawing room. They were mid conversation when Ghislaine sheepishly interrupted them. She was summoned because Maxwell had learned that she was practicing dangerous stunts on one of her many vacations and she.

[Unknown Speaker 7]

Had had an accident. And he told her, why do I have to hear this from Su Agnelli and not from my own daughter? You're always doing foolish things. This referred to her jumping out of a helicopter with water skis on or something. I mean, she was fairly bold and daring.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

That's right, jumping out of a helicopter on water skis. But this time Belaine pushed back. She said she wasn't fooling around and it wasn't dangerous. But Maxwell continued to tell her off in front of Roy, who sensed Maxwell was enjoying himself.

[Unknown Speaker 7]

There was something about the dropping of the Agnelli name that made a difference here. Was one of Italy's richest families and she was connected to it. And I think he rather liked that.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

Roy didn't really know what to say. So after Ghislaine left the room, he shook his head and laughed.

[Unknown Speaker 7]

Maxwell said, well, yes, in that way, she's rather like me.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

There was an intensity to Maxwell's love for Ghislaine. Once he told a journalist, my family won't inherit anything. The only ones who deserve anything are my youngest, Ghislaine and Kevin. I adore both of them. Kevin is so much like me and Ghislaine is a friend. Robert walked a fine line in his relationship with Ghislaine, adoring and supporting her, but also controlling and tormenting her. Was there something about this friendship that would be push Ghislaine over the edge after his death?

[Unknown Speaker 5]

Well, we've just heard from the Air Sea Rescue center at Madrid that a body has been found.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

Coming up, an acquaintance who met Ghislaine in New York immediately after Maxwell's death.

[Unknown Speaker 6]

Then she says, does Ghislaine, do you know her? And I realize, oh yeah, I met this bitch once before and I didn't like her.

[Unknown Speaker 3]

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[Unknown Speaker 2]

Adams, I see you're trying to distract.

[Unknown Speaker 4]

Yourself from your own banal thoughts.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

Let me help. Here's a Recording thing made of my latest root Canal.

[Unknown Speaker 6]

Wednesday Season 2 is now playing only on Netflix.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

Christina Oxenberg lives in Serbia these days. If you follow the lives of the Serbian royal family, you might have heard of her mother, Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia in the uk. Prince Andrew is her cousin. Christina's a New Yorker. She knows the city Ghislaine Maxwell fled to inside out.

[Unknown Speaker 6]

I arrived in New York in 1980. I've spent a lot of years doing a lot of different jobs. My resume is a joke. It's like 95 pages of lowly office jobs and, you know, benevolent friends who've allowed me to ruin their life for six months.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

In those early years, she worked as a director of a music video. She worked in prison. She was a researcher for writers.

[Unknown Speaker 6]

You know, paying my rent and doing my thing.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

Christina doesn't have many souvenirs from her old life in America. She lost everything in a hurricane a few years ago. But there's one photograph she found again recently, a photograph she didn't lose from back when she was living in New York. It's a picture of Ghislaine Maxwell. It was taken in the restaurant on the top floor of Barney's department store on 7th Avenue. The spot was later known as Fred's, where famous people go to eat overpriced salads. On that day in the early 90s, Christina spotted a friend from afar. So she crossed the busy room.

[Unknown Speaker 6]

I went to say hello to my friend.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

The person her friend was having lunch with looked familiar.

[Unknown Speaker 6]

Then she says, this is Ghislaine. Do you know her? And I realize, oh, yeah, I met this bitch once before and I didn't like her.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

So what happened that first time when Christina met her?

[Unknown Speaker 6]

It's very detailed, the first exchange. So if you really want me to go plowing through it, I will. But if I don't have to, because I'm already exhausted. I'm an old bag with horrible. I'll be dead in six months by the time your story comes out.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

Okay, here's what happened.

[Unknown Speaker 6]

So, Keela, the very first time I meet her, it's at a wedding. Don't bother asking questions because I'm not gonna say more than what I'm saying. Like, whose wedding is it? Like, never mind that I meet her.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

At a wedding in America, in Virginia, to be precise. The year was 1990.

[Unknown Speaker 6]

I am with my husband, who is English. We've been married at that point for long enough for me to know I'm planning on getting a divorce soon.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

The wedding was full of Americans, most of Them were Christina's friends. There was one British guy there who.

[Unknown Speaker 6]

I know from childhood because I did grow up in England, hence the messy accent. But he brought as his date, as his plus one, Ghislaine Maxwell.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

This is 1990, so Robert Maxwell is still alive. And Ghislaine was Daddy's little girl. It's easy to imagine how she must have looked. She was probably wearing a big hat, maybe even gloves.

[Unknown Speaker 6]

So she strolled across, said, kiss, kiss, to the hut. To my husband, Damien Elwes. E L W E S for sugar. So she strolls over to say hello to Damian, her friend from, you know, from England. They hug. They're thrilled to see each other. Damien does not bother to introduce me, which was his way. She says, what is this? Pointing at me with her chin.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

What an introduction. Christina laughed awkwardly and kept quiet.

[Unknown Speaker 6]

I don't care. I'm not gonna be offended, but it's not how I would say hello.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

The husband and Ghislaine went on talking for a few minutes, totally ignoring Christina.

[Unknown Speaker 6]

And then she loops her arm through his, linking their arms, and she strolls him away into the crowd.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

Who on earth was this woman with so much confidence? That's pretty ballsy to swoop in and pull away someone's husband. It almost sounds like something her father, Robert Maxwell, would have done to show who's boss to assert his dominance.

[Unknown Speaker 6]

You know, she was trying to set the scene that she was in charge and that whoever I was, she had more dibs on Damian than me. But I was laughing because I was like, keep him, bitch.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

Okay, let's go back to that New York restaurant encounter a year or two later. By now, Christina and her husband had separated. While Kristina hadn't forgotten that exchange at the wedding, something had happened to Ghislaine since then, something that had changed her life. Months earlier, Robert Maxwell had died in the most dramatic way. His death and its fallout was such a massive story that it actually made Christina feel something for Ghislaine. Pity.

[Unknown Speaker 6]

The fact that her father had died made me put. Lay down my sword, put aside any initial thoughts I had had of her when I first met her. And just to be polite and also give her a second chance, because maybe that's life altering, you know, maybe she'll be nice now, so I guess offer my condolences. And she asks me for my phone number, and she says, please, you know, I'm new in town, this is obviously in New York City, and can we be friends?

[Unknown Speaker 2]

What did Ghislaine see in Christina?

[Unknown Speaker 6]

She misread me. She saw in me someone. She understood my lineage. She decided, erroneously, from the beginning that I was someone she could play with, that I was someone she could lure in.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

Christina gave her her number and took a photograph of Ghislaine, the one she found again recently. In it, Ghislaine is smiling at the camera. She's wearing a white sweater. On the surface, she seems happy. But looking at it now, it feels different. It's as if the ghost of Robert Maxwell is hanging over Ghislaine. And the next time Christina met Ghislaine, she'd begin to see the effect it had on her. When Christina Oxenberg met Ghislaine, she didn't think she'd end up seeing her again so soon. Sure, Ghislaine took down her phone number for her address book, but she was surprised to get an invite for tea at Ghislaine's apartment on the Upper east side. She was buzzed in and entered a square room with cream walls, a high ceiling and massive windows. There was a sprawling, unmade bed. Christina describes it as Victorian boudoir chic.

[Unknown Speaker 6]

I think there were only three other girls there. They were English, they were thin. I didn't know any of them, but it was. Obviously they were toffs from their accents, from their scarves around their necks, you know, their swish little tight Sloane Streets clothing.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

Pristina wasn't giving much thought to the other posh guests because Ghislaine was commanding all the attention.

[Unknown Speaker 6]

She's weird. She's strange. She's throwing her dog across the room.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

Wait, throwing her dog around? Christina says that Ghislaine had a baby Yorkshire terrier called Max. She says she threw him around the room more than once, making him quiver. Another thing. Ghislaine was only wearing her underwear.

[Unknown Speaker 6]

I know you want to know what it looks like, so I'm just going to tell you. It was white and frilly and it wasn't a thong, thank God. And she didn't look bad. She didn't look terrible. I mean, I wasn't put off, but I was surprised. And it was a hot day, I'll give her that.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

Who hosts a tea party in their underwear? What Ghislaine was saying was weird. Weird, too.

[Unknown Speaker 6]

I am broke. She said it more than once. I. I didn't question it. I've been broke most of my life. You know, there have been ups and downs and sometimes it's been $7 in the bank and I have asked for sandwiches from friends. It's happened. So when she said she was broke, I Took it literally.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

I find it hard to believe that Ghislaine Maxwell was as broke as she claimed to be. Maybe it's all relative. I'm sure it wasn't easy accepting a more modest life, one that didn't come with yachts, private planes and helicopters.

[Unknown Speaker 6]

And I just didn't really read the signs that she was sitting in rather a pretty apartment that you can't have if you're broke. It was a studio, which means literally one single room. But it was pretty and it was in the. It was on the up. It was in the best part of town. You can't do that if you're broke.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

I've heard about this place that Ghislaine moved into when she first arrived in New York. Kristina thinks it was an elaborate theatrical display intended to hide the obvious truth.

[Unknown Speaker 6]

She was just mourning her dad. Father had died. That was really the whole. That was the whole story. But she kept saying she was broke.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

Christina felt uncomfortable and left the party early. She didn't really want to become Ghislaine's New York pal.

[Unknown Speaker 6]

We were never friends. We had occasional run ins. And in those run ins she revealed herself.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

Christina could see the signs then that we know for certain now. Ghislaine Maxwell wasn't truly broke. There were reports that her father left her a trust fund with an allowance of $100,000 a year. Maybe that isn't enough to live a fabulous life in Manhattan like the one she lived in London as a socialite, but she certainly wasn't broke. But maybe when she said she was broke, what she really meant was that she was broken. When Christina looks back on those early meetings, after everything that's happened, she sees it as kind of a turning point in Ghislaine's life.

[Unknown Speaker 6]

With her father's death, she becomes either somebody else that she would never have become, or she becomes who she truly is. Had her father been alive, could this ever have happened to her life? Would she have slid down that pole of crime where she is now?

[Unknown Speaker 2]

When Robert Maxwell died in 1991, he left behind a legacy that was almost as big as his ego. But maybe the biggest mark he left on the world was his daughter, Ghislaine. Of course, the crimes Ghislaine is alleged to have committed were of her own volition. She was an adult. Her father was dead. We can't really blame Robert Maxwell for that. But when it came to her pursuit and abuse of power, could it be something she learned from her father? Over the next six episodes, we're going to tell you the story of Robert Maxwell and maybe then we can make more sense of where Ghislaine has ended up. We'll hear about his ascent to become a newspaper tycoon, his high wire business deals and a final plunge into disaster. Next time on Power the Maxwells. The moment when he met his end.

[Unknown Speaker 7]

Robert Maxwell has gone missing over the stern of his yacht, the Lady Gillian, near Tenerife.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

We go back to November 1991 when Robert Maxwell's 300 pound body hit the water. What happened to him now?

[Unknown Speaker 5]

I've pulled many, many bodies from the sea and I can tell you that this one did not drown.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

We speak to the people who were with Ghislaine in the Canary Islands in the immediate aftermath.

[Unknown Speaker 5]

And that was when I heard her telling the crew to shred all the faxes and any documents.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

Power of the Maxwells is written and presented by me, Tara Palmieri. Producers are Paul Smith and Grant Irving. Story editor is Dasha Lisitzina. Our executive producer is Tom Koenig. Original music by Nolan Schneider. Engineering and scoring by Spoke Media and NPAL Audio. Our visual designers are Emma Lansdowne and Alex Elder. Special thanks to Ella McLeod, Joe Sykes, Russell Finch, Peggy Sutton, Steve Ackerman and Mark Rivers.

[Unknown Speaker 1]

Thanks again everyone for tuning in this week. If you want to hear the rest of that series ad free, you can subscribe to the Binge. And we'll be back next week with an all new episode of Infamous.