ARD documentary: The two men of Ghislaine Maxwell: How she was prepared for her crimes at a young age

July 26, 2022

At the end of June, a New York court announced Ghislaine Maxwell’s sentence. Jeffrey Epstein’s accomplice has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. It is the end of a most privileged life. That’s exactly what some of Maxwell’s companions and acquaintances have in the new ARD documentary “Who is Ghislaine Maxwell?” cast a look.

The documentary begins with childhood footage of a little girl, Ghislaine, as she enthusiastically recounts what Santa brought her. Maxwell was the youngest of nine children and grew up near Oxford. The key figure in her childhood and adolescence was – as becomes clear in the first episode of the three-part documentary – her rich and powerful father, publisher Robert Maxwell.

As her father’s favorite child, Ghislaine was less aware of his tantrums, as companions explain the special relationship. A relationship that is said to have been mutually beneficial.

Even during her time at the university, the rich daughter was known like a sore thumb and apparently used her activity to her advantage – and that of her father. And so she was able to assist the patriarch Maxwell when the publisher threw parties. The system, according to those who attended, was simple: Ghislaine Maxwell used her talent for small talk and her connections in British high society to embellish her father’s guest lists.

The turning point in her life was Robert Maxwell’s mysterious death in 1991 on his yacht, which he had named after his favorite daughter: Lady Ghislaine. For the “Daddy’s Girl”, as she claims to have called herself, a shock that drove her to move to the USA. There Maxwell met the second most important man in her life a little later: Jeffrey Epstein. There, Maxwell did what her father had taught her when she was young: network.

But she had primarily helped her father with business relationships, her machinations at Epstein’s side were criminal. The author Christina Oxenberg, who met Maxwell at several stages in her life, says that the British woman is said to have told her how she recruited young girls for her boyfriend Epstein. In the documentary, Oxenberg recalled Maxwell apparently admitting to her that Epstein needed three orgasms in one day and that she wanted to fulfill his need. The girls are “garbage” for her, which she found in poor neighborhoods in the USA and hired as masseuses.

“Who is Ghislaine Maxwell?” illuminates, without drooling voyeurism, how the privileged British woman became an accomplice to a sex offender. It becomes clear that Maxwell’s entire life was shaped by two powerful men whom she glorified: Robert Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein.

All three parts of “Who is Ghislaine Maxwell?” can be seen in the ARD media library.