Ghislaine Maxwell

Ghislaine Noelle Marion Maxwell is a British former socialite. In 2021, she was found guilty of child sex trafficking and other offences in connection with the deceased financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The following year, she was sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment in the United States.

Born on Christmas Day 1961 in Maisons-Laffitte, France, the youngest of nine children of British media mogul Robert Maxwell and French-born Elisabeth (Betty) Maxwell. She grew up in Headington Hill Hall, a 53-room mansion in Oxford, England. She was educated at Marlborough College and then read modern history and languages at Balliol College, Oxford University. After graduating, she worked at her father's companies, including the Oxford United football club, before moving into London socialite circles.

Maxwell was the youngest and reportedly favorite child of Robert Maxwell. After her father's mysterious death in 1991, she moved to New York City where she quickly embedded herself in high society. She reportedly introduced Epstein to Prince Andrew. She obtained a helicopter pilot's license and a deep-sea submarine pilot's license. She co-founded the TerraMar Project, an ocean conservation nonprofit, in 2012, which dissolved in 2019. At trial, prosecutors alleged she helped recruit, groom, and abuse underage girls between 1994 and 2004. She was arrested hiding in a 156-acre property in Bradford, New Hampshire, that she had purchased through an LLC.

Youngest of nine children of Robert Maxwell (1923–1991) and Elisabeth "Betty" Maxwell (1921–2013). Her siblings include Ian Maxwell, Kevin Maxwell, Christine Maxwell, Isabel Maxwell, Philip Maxwell, and twins who died as infants. Her father Robert drowned under mysterious circumstances after falling from his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine (named after her), near the Canary Islands in November 1991. She married Scott Borgerson, a technology entrepreneur and former Coast Guard officer, in a secret ceremony around 2016, though the marriage was not publicly known until her 2020 arrest. She has no known children.