Ghislaine Maxwell calls Prince Andrew 'dear friend' from behind prison walls: 'I feel so bad for him'
TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA: Prince Andrew has once again been linked to the Jeffrey Epstein sex-abuse scandal after the pedophile's conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell called the Duke of York a "dear friend." In a prison interview with The Mail on Sunday, October 16, Maxwell expressed sincere sorrow over his own tragic fall from grace.
Prince Andrew, on the other hand, has sought to maintain distance from the convicted sex trafficker who was described in court as a "sophisticated predator." Maxwell's controversial comments on Prince Andrew are believed to quash the Duke's hopes of returning to public life after being effectively expelled from the Royal Family this year.
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Maxwell, who has known Duke of York since she was a student at Oxford University in the 1980s, spoke highly about her friendship with him and said in her bombshell interview with The Mail, "Yes, I follow what is happening to him. He is paying such a price for the association with Jeffrey Epstein. I consider him a dear friend...I care about him, and I feel so bad for him." Her comments come as the Ministry of State on Sunday releases a brand-new image of the disgraced former socialite, which was taken at the Metropolitan Detention Center in New York this year before she was transferred to a Florida prison to serve her 20-year sentence.
The interview, which was conducted at the all-female Tallahassee FCI in the state capital of Florida, was first published in The Mail on Sunday and will be aired on ITV on Monday, October 17. When asked about the Duke's lawyers' denials in court documents that they were close friends, Maxwell, 60, responded, "I accept that this friendship could not survive my conviction."
Prince Andrew, 62, lost his royal patronage and military titles as he battled accusations that he molested Virginia Roberts Giuffre, one of Epstein's victims, as a teenager. The Duke of York has categorically and repeatedly denied the accusations. He reached an out-of-court agreement with Giuffre for an undisclosed sum without admitting guilt.
Maxwell has accepted that Tallahassee FCI, an all-female prison in Florida's capital close to where the majority of her crimes took place, will be her home for the foreseeable future. Describing her life in a 10ft by 8ft cell that was too small for her and her three fellow inmates, the British socialite turned convicted sex trafficker said, "It's very far from a cushy country club." She also revealed that she got a job in the Tallahassee jail’s law library and education center.
