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USA Today
7 hours ago
- Politics
- USA Today
She's inmate No. 02879-509 in Florida. But once again, Ghislaine Maxwell is holding court
"The tofu has no seasoning, there's no seasoning allowed. No salt or pepper or anything. So, it's beyond tasteless.' While Ghislaine Maxwell awaited trial for sex trafficking in a Brooklyn jail, PETA lobbied to ensure that she had vegan meals. It's unclear when the heiress had given up meat. She was spotted scarfing down a burger, fries and shake at a Los Angeles In-N-Out Burger in 2019. When the British socialite's family lost its fortune and she moved to New York in the 1990s, she found a friend to lend her a luxury apartment overlooking Central Park to start a new life. Now, as inmate No. 02879-509 — serving 20 years for her role in conspiring to recruit, groom and sexually abuse underage girls — she wants her freedom. And the country waits to see if President Donald Trump, whose reputation hangs on what she says, will give her a pardon. In many ways, Maxwell has always been in charge – becoming a confidante of financier Jeffrey Epstein and connecting the rich and famous to turning the tables on lawyers during a deposition. She does so with a hint of entitlement that comes from her privileged background, and a lot of moxie. 'I know where you are headed with this and it's nowhere appropriate and it's really unattractive,' she once told a lawyer during a deposition. Maxwell met with the Department of Justice last week. She spent two days answering questions from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche about Epstein and about 100 others possibly involved in the notorious sex-trafficking operation. While they didn't share what was asked or if Trump – a longtime friend of Epstein – was the focus of any questions, David Markus, an attorney representing Maxwell, said she answered all questions. "She didn't hold anything back,' he said. The Wall Street Journal and CNN reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi told Trump in May that he was named multiple times in the government's files on Epstein. Maxwell, 63, now spends her days teaching yoga and etiquette classes at a federal corrections institute in Florida, waiting to see if she will get what she wants again. 'She was interested in power' Maxwell wasn't used to being told no. She grew up in a 51-room Italianate mansion in the United Kingdom. She was born on Christmas Day, the ninth child of Elisabeth and Robert Maxwell in 1961. Two days later, the couple's oldest child Michael was injured in a car wreck on his way home from a dance and left in a coma. Elisabeth spent every morning of that next year at the hospital, talking to her son in hopes of bringing him back to consciousness. The family fell apart, Maxwell's mother would write in her 1994 memoir, 'A Mind of My Own: My Life with Robert Maxwell.' 'The two little ones were seemingly unaware of the tragedy, but Ghislaine, who should have been the center of our love and attention, was hardly given a glance and became anorexic whilst still a toddler,' Elisabeth Maxwell wrote. 'She planted herself in front of me and said simply 'Mummy, I exist.' I was devastated,' she wrote. 'And we all made a great effort with her, fussing over her so much that she became spoiled.' Michael spent seven years in a coma before he died. Maxwell went to boarding school at 8 and later to the University of Oxford. "It was very clear to me even as an undergraduate that she was interested in power and money," Anna Pasternak, a writer who knew Maxwell from Oxford, told the BBC in 2022. "She was one of those people at parties who always looked over your shoulder to see if there was somebody more powerful or more interesting while she was air-kissing you." Maxwell's father died in 1991. It is unknown whether he fell or jumped from his yacht, he named after his daughter, Lady Ghislaine. Shortly after, it was revealed that he had stolen $824 million from pension funds. A relationship with mutual benefits Maxwell and Epstein were inseparable for almost a decade. She met Epstein, then a hedge fund manager, through a mutual friend when she moved to New York City in 1991. She was 30; he was 38. The friendship made sense. She knew wealthy and connected people. She has been photographed with Prince Andrew, Naomi Campbell, Mick Jagger, Michael Bloomberg. Epstein needed them. She needed to maintain the lifestyle provided by her late father, who had owned the Mirror Group and the New York Daily News. Maxwell and Epstein dated for a while, then they were friends. She began working for him, taking care of his homes, hiring staff, architects and contractors in 1992 and did so on and off through 2009. Photos of them from society pages and those shown at her trial often look as if they come from a Ralph Lauren ad, moneyed plaid with a perfect looking golden retriever in a grassy area, tuxedos and gowns in dark wood paneled rooms. She wears the uniform of old money: button ups, crewneck sweaters, minimal makeup and simple jewelry like diamond or pearl stud earrings. They embrace in front of an ocean, on a yacht, in a helicopter or on a private jet. He often looks straight ahead; she looks at him. There are celebrities in some: Trump. Harvey Weinstein, Michael Bolton. Paris Hilton. 'We were very friendly,' she would say. In 1995, Epstein named one of his companies the Ghislaine Corporation. More than 1,000 victims Maxwell had another job for Epstein. At her 2021 trial, prosecutors portrayed her as a sophisticated predator who befriended young girls and lured them into sex with Epstein. She bought them gifts including cowboy boots and Prada purses, flattered them and promised to help support them through school. 'Years of sexual abuse, multiple victims, devastating psychological harm. None of this could have happened without Maxwell,' the prosecutors said of the more than 1,000 victims. Four women shared stories at her trial, including one woman who was 17 when she met Maxwell in Paris. 'She seemed to be everything that I wanted to be. And she seemed to like me,' said the woman who was referred to as Kate. 'I left that feeling exhilarated, like somebody wanted me, like somebody wanted to be my friend.' Later Maxwell would invite her to massage Epstein, who initiated sexual contact. This happened several times over the following years in London, New York, Palm Beach and Epstein's private island. After the massages, Kate testified, Maxwell always complimented her: 'You're such a good girl. And I'm so happy you were able to come. This is really great. And he obviously likes you a lot.' Annie Farmer testified with her real name at the trial. She had met Maxwell when she was a high school student in Arizona and her older sister worked for Epstein. She said Maxwell told her that Epstein wanted to help her pay for college. She also said that Maxwell sexually abused her when she visited Epstein's New Mexico ranch. 'She pulled the sheet down and exposed my breasts and started rubbing on my chest and on my upper breasts,' Farmer said. 'I was surprised. I wanted so badly to get off of the table.' During her trial, Maxwell remained 'expressing no frailty and certainly no regret,' The New Yorker reported. Maxwell tried to reverse the roles in court. While a courtroom sketch artist drew her, Maxwell began to sketch the artist back. Maxwell has maintained she didn't know about Epstein's abuse. She said in a 2016 deposition that she learned about the allegations against him 'like everybody else, like the rest of the world, when it was announced in the papers.' And she says she never hired anyone under 18. 'I hired assistants, architects, decorators, cooks, cleaners, gardeners, pool people, pilots. I hired all sorts of people," Maxwell said during a deposition for a civil suit in April 2016. 'A very small part of my job was to find adult professional massage therapists for Jeffrey. As far as I'm concerned, everyone who came to his house was an adult professional person.' Perhaps you are not really familiar with what massage is 'Was it Jeffrey's preference to start a massage with sex?' a lawyer asked Maxwell during a 2016 deposition. 'Perhaps you are not really familiar with what massage is. Massage is for health benefits,' Maxwell replied, adding that Epstein received one massage each day. A few years before Maxwell was arrested, a woman named Virginia Giuffre had alleged she was trafficked by Epstein and Maxwell to Prince Andrew when she was a teenager. Maxwell denied it, and Giuffre filed a civil suit against her. During Maxwell's deposition, she calls Giuffre a liar 36 times, argues with attorneys and slaps the table in disgust. When Giuffre says that Maxwell and Epstein bought her gifts, she doesn't just say no when shown a photo of Giuffre in a Burberry dress. 'I would never. The outfit doesn't work at all.' Prince Andrew never acknowledged the abuse. He settled a civil lawsuit in 2022 brought by Giuffre. She killed herself in April of this year. Loyalty, with a price When Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges in 2008, he spent less than 13 months in a minimum-security jail and was allowed to leave for 12 hours a day for work. He settled several civil lawsuits against him and paid restitution to victims. Maxwell continued to work for him. When asked why during the 2016 deposition, she said: 'I'm a very loyal person and Jeffrey was very good to me when my father passed away and I believe that you need to be a good friend in people's hour of need and I felt that it was a very thoughtful, nice thing for me to do to help in very limited fashion which was helping if he had any issue with his homes in terms of the staffing issues. It was very very minor, but I felt it was thoughtful in somebody's hour of need.' Bank records shown at her trial reveal that Epstein paid Maxwell more than $30 million during the years they were together. The waiting game In prison, Maxwell is also allowed to spend up to $360 each month in the commissary, shopping once a week for vegetarian items such as $4.95 Fruity Dyno Bites or $2.55 vegan bags of Boom Chicka popcorn. 'You're supposed to have either hummus or cottage cheese or tofu, but most of the time, it's tofu if it's anything or beans. And then the tofu has no seasoning, there's no seasoning allowed. No salt or pepper or anything. So, it's beyond tasteless,' she told a British TV host in 2023 of the food served. As Maxwell serves her time in Florida as one of the most powerful prisoners in American history, she is reportedly in an 'honors dorm,' which would likely offer her a private room, however prison officials won't confirm her accommodations. Maxwell was in a detention center in Brooklyn before she was transferred to Federal Correctional Institution Tallahassee in 2022. Some of her crimes took place in Florida. While at the Brooklyn center, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals' president sent a letter on her behalf to get her access to more nonmeat meals. It is believed that Maxwell is receiving vegan meals in Florida. The prison wouldn't comment, but a PETA spokeswoman confirmed, saying the group advocated for non-meat meals 'not only for vegans but for people who are convicted of violent crime as we believe they should not be permitted to engage in more violent acts by eating animals.' On July 24 and 25, she was able to leave the prison for the first time to meet with Department of Justice lawyers at the federal courthouse in Tallahassee. Maxwell has sought to overturn her conviction and has filed a petition with the Supreme Court, which the Justice Department has opposed. When asked on Monday if he would consider pardoning Maxwell, Trump said he is 'allowed' to, but it would be 'inappropriate' to discuss it. After her 2020 arrest, when asked if Maxwell might cut a deal with prosecutors, Trump said: "I just wish her well." The one thing Maxwell could never have Was Epstein the one thing Maxwell wanted but could never have? She was asked in a deposition if she was Epstein's girlfriend in 2004. 'Define what you mean by girlfriend,' Maxwell said. 'Were you in a relationship with him where you would consider yourself his girlfriend? Did you ever consider yourself his girlfriend?' the lawyer asked. 'That's a tricky question,' Maxwell says. 'There were times when I would have liked to think of myself as his girlfriend,' she says. When asked about their relationship again, she says: 'I don't know if I would have ever characterized myself as his girlfriend, but at that time (redacted) was with him as much if more than I was.' Her job, 'was to take care of Jeffrey's needs,' Kate testified at trial. With Epstein dead, Maxwell awaits for the second-best thing: her freedom. Laura Trujillo is a national columnist focusing on health and wellness. She is the author of "Stepping Back from the Ledge: A Daughter's Search for Truth and Renewal," and can be reached at ltrujillo@
Los Angeles Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
The Vincent Vineyards Estate
Set behind gates on nearly 25 acres in prime Santa Ynez wine country, Vincent Vineyards is a rare turnkey estate offering luxury, privacy and viticultural prestige. The 6-bed Italianate villa boasts sweeping vineyard views, en-suite bedrooms, a breakfast room, gym, elevator and spa-like primary. Two guesthouses add 3 more bedroom suites, gourmet kitchens and generous living space. With 14 acres of Bordeaux vines, a winery, tasting room, pool pavilion with chef's kitchen and 7 garage spaces, this is a true vintner's dream just minutes from Los Olivos and SR-154. Location: 2370 North Refugio Road, Santa Ynez 93460 Asking Price: $28,000,000 Year Built: 1992 Living Area: 15,118 square feet, 9 bedrooms, 11 bathrooms Features: Highlights include a 6BD Italianate villa, 2 guesthouses, 14± acres of Bordeaux vines, private winery and tasting room, pool pavilion with chef's kitchen, gym, elevator, dual primary baths, 7-car garage – all on 25± gated acres near Los Olivos and SR-154. Contact: Sotheby's International Realty Neyshia Go310.882.8357Neyshia@ 01933923 Byron 02079325
Style Blueprint
5 days ago
- Style Blueprint
Two Rivers Mansion Just Had a $4.5 Million Renovation!
Share with your friends! Pinterest LinkedIn Email Flipboard Reddit After nearly two years wrapped in scaffolding and construction cones, Two Rivers Mansion is finally ready to show off its glow-up. On Saturday, August 9, at 10 a.m., the newly restored historic estate will return to the spotlight with a public ribbon-cutting ceremony hosted by the Friends of Two Rivers — and yes, you're invited. Pin If you've ever strolled past this grand, 1859-built Italianate beauty and thought, 'She's still got it,' you weren't wrong. But now, she's got even more. The $4.5 million restoration is the largest facelift in the mansion's history, and let's just say, the results are nothing short of stunning. 'This isn't just a fresh coat of paint,' says Jeff Syracuse, Vice President of Friends of Two Rivers. 'The mansion is better than it's ever been before. It's ready to stand the test of time and then some.' For those unfamiliar, Two Rivers Mansion sits in Donelson beside the original 1802 federal-style brick home and is one of the best-preserved Italianate homes in Middle Tennessee. Originally built by David McGavock over the course of eight years, the estate remained in the family for over a century before Metro Government purchased it in 1966. Over the decades, the mansion has served as a quiet but commanding presence, hosting weddings, concerts, school field trips, and the occasional local history buff just there to gawk at the ceilings. But with the latest renovation, it's ready for a whole new chapter. 'You can look at a photo in a book,' says Friends of Two Rivers President Philip Claiborne, 'but stepping inside one of these rooms? That's when the magic hits you.' And Philip knows a thing or two about that magic; he's been helping lead the charge to protect and promote the mansion for over 15 years. Pin Tours of the newly renovated mansion begin just before the grand reveal, running from August 4 through September 12. Guided tours are offered Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays, with four hourly slots between noon and 3 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for children 12 and under, and free for members of Friends of Two Rivers (a good excuse to join, if you ask us). Beyond tours, the mansion is also available for private events, so if you're dreaming of a wedding venue with serious Bridgerton vibes or want to throw a birthday party that makes your friends wildly jealous, you're in luck. Pin And this is only the beginning. The Two Rivers restoration is just one piece of the Friends of Two Rivers' larger mission to preserve and share Nashville's history, one stately room at a time. With an eye on the future and a deep respect for the past, this group of dedicated locals has ensured our city's stories and architecture continue to live on. So, whether you're a history lover, architecture fan, or just a sucker for a good before-and-after, mark your calendar. Two Rivers Mansion is back and looking better than ever. ********** Keep up with the best parts of life in the South. Subscribe to StyleBlueprint! About the Author Jenna Bratcher Jenna Bratcher is StyleBlueprint Nashville's Associate Editor and Lead Writer. The East Coast native moved to Nashville 17 years ago, by way of Los Angeles. She is a lover of dogs, strong coffee, traveling, and exploring the local restaurant scene bite by bite.
Chicago Tribune
22-07-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
When siding comes off, ‘true Italianate beauty' of historic Elgin house exposed
On a recent weekend earlier this month, 20 volunteers helped strip the aluminum siding that covered a 137-year-old home at 27 Rugby Place in Elgin's Gifford Park neighborhood. 'What we uncovered left us speechless — beautiful original details and brackets that had been hidden for over 50 years,' said owner Christen Sundquist, who's also the city of Elgin's historic preservation planner. 'It's a true Italianate beauty, and we're ready to bring it back to life with care and accuracy.' Sundquist is undertaking the monumental task with her husband, architect Matt Martin. The couple moved into the home in December 2021 and live there with their two young children. To help pay for the exterior renovations, the couple received a $5,000 matching grant from a Gifford Park Association program that assists Elgin Historic District property owners in covering the cost of aluminum siding removal so the original facade and missing architectural features can be restored. Association board member Paul Bednar said the money the nonprofit provides for such projects comes from funds it raises with its annual Historic Elgin House Tour, which this year will be held Sept. 6 and 7. According to association President Dan Miller, the nonprofit has awarded grant money for such work to 22 homeowners. Another 20 have done it without their financial help. Prior to the Rugby Place project, the last 'great unveiling' — as the they call such projects — took place more than three years ago on North Porter Street, he said. 'In the spirit of an old-fashioned barn raising, we typically get all the siding off before noon and then have lunch together,' Miller said. The association also recently used $5,000 in money from its house tour to pay a contractor to plant 11 magnolia trees at seven different locations on city-owned park land in the district. Magnolia trees are the variety residents commonly planted when the old neighborhoods were being built in the mid- to late-1800s, Bednar said. 'That's the start of a program to try to entice homeowners to add them into their yards as well,' Bednar said. Sundquist noted there's still a lot of work to be done to the exterior of the house, which was built in 1888 for William Kerber, cofounder of Kerber's Meat Packing Co. in Elgin. 'The aluminum removal was the easy part,' she said. 'The hard but most rewarding part will be removing the paint down to bare wood, sanding, priming and painting. We also have 30 brackets to make and crown molding and trim details to do. But the wood clapboard siding is in impeccable condition.' The cost of the exterior project, from siding removal to prepping, painting and recreation of missing features, could be between $20,000 and $40,000, depending on how much work is done by contractors, Sundquist said. Bednar said Sundquist's and Martin's home might also qualify for another $3,000 in association program funding to help pay for recreation of the original porch balcony balustrade. 'That's the next project, as we have a door that leads out to the porch, which would be another wonderful spot to entertain guests and drink a cup of coffee in the morning,' Sundquist said. Elgin has a Historic Rehabilitation Grant program that provides up to $20,000 in matching grant money for qualifying work on historic district and landmark properties but because Sundquist oversees the program, she is not eligible to apply for what it offers, she said. The Rugby Place house has been a project for the couple, who have installed central air conditioning, buried the electrical line into the property, added an upstairs laundry room, removed carpeting, sanded the wood floors, restored plaster, refinished the dining room, added first-floor casement windows and restored the front and side doors, Sundquist said. 'And way down the line, likely when our kids are in college, we hope to rebuild the belvedere on top of the roof as we found a recent historic photograph that showed that we had one,' she said.
Spectator
21-07-2025
- General
- Spectator
Let's slash the school summer holiday
There are three little words that strike horror into the heart of every parent of school-age children. They are the words that cause you to break out in a cold sweat or let out a moan in your sleep in the dead of night – even in the middle of winter. They are 'school summer holidays'. Hear those three words and you may very well envisage jubilant children spewing from the school gates and then remember the dim, distant sun-kissed summers of your own youth. But mention them within earshot of a parent of appropriately aged offspring and you'll see the light go out in their eyes. Oh yes, the kids are happy – just like the waving teachers who weep with joy to see their charges depart. But now it's time for the parents to weep. Were you fortunate enough to be able to take the whole of the month of August off to 'summer' somewhere – perhaps a holiday home near Padstow in Cornwall or an Italianate villa in some dreamy olive-grove in Tuscany – then it would be a different story. Similarly, if you're one of the privileged few who enjoy a '1950s settlement' – where one spouse does not work (for money) – then I'm sure everything would be rosy or rather, rosé. But if, like most of us, you are a 'hard-working family' as Gordon Brown liked to put it, then the six-week school summer holidays are a living hell, one which makes August feel like a Godot-esque month without end. Six weeks. I would rather run the London marathon backwards dressed in a chicken suit in a heatwave than do it all again. And yet here it is. For working parents this is the ultimate test in work-life-imbalance. It's six weeks of ferrying your children between endless camps, time-absorbing playdates, sailing lessons, swimming lessons and multifarious 'multi-sports' activities – none of which seem to start before nine or ten in the morning and all of which then finish in the middle of the afternoon – all while trying to fit in actual work and things like meetings and conference calls, while also remembering which child has which packed lunch or what snack, and repeatedly re-coating them in sunblock because despite the usually crapness of the British summer, the sun's lethal rays will still zap the little dears' flesh to pieces even when it's overcast. So as well as doing enough mileage to qualify for a free Yorkie and forking out a fortune on childcare activities – £75 a day for two would seem the going rate – you'll end up working your evenings to catch up, which is incredibly sustainable as anyone knows, particularly resident (or should that be hesitant?) doctors. Six weeks. I would rather run the London marathon backwards dressed in a chicken suit in a heatwave than do it all again. And yet here it is Now, this would all be fine if it was just for a few weeks. But it's not, is it? It's for six weeks. It's 40 days and 40 nights of planning, remembering, logistics, lunches, clothing, kit, bags, shoes, trainers, flippers, the wheres, the whens, the with-whoms, all the while maintaining the verisimilitude of professional life. Sooner or later, no matter how good you are at juggling, you end up delivering one 12-year-old dressed in a wetsuit to the toddler's party at a village hall and the toddler who can't swim 15 miles away to a reservoir for capsize training. That's if you can still actually drive at all because your hands are so permanently slimy from all the sun cream. Unsurprisingly come the first week of September (south of the border, anyway – the Scots go back earlier) you can usually spot the parents of school-age children. They have ghostly, withdrawn faces and move around the around the Lidl car park with a stooped Morlockian gait. Do not cross these men and women. They are teetering on the edge of breaking point. Is the six-week school summer holiday a species of psychological torture? Quite possibly. What I can say is that once upon a time the smell of sun cream made me think of happy times – now the odour is enough to give me a mild panic attack. And it shouldn't be this way. Because let's face it, we only have long summer holidays because that's the way it's always been. It's not through design. It emerged this way, it is believed, so that kids could be off school to help with the harvest. Now, if the children were still in the fields helping to gather up wheat and barley, then it wouldn't be such a waste of time. I'd approve of that – better than Fortnite on Nintendo or the brain rot on YouTube – particularly if someone else was watching them so I could get on with some work. But the fact is they're not – and they haven't been for about a hundred years, not since Laurie Lee had his last sip of cider with Rosie. So, I say, let's move with the times. Let's still have a whopping end of year break, but how about we make it feasible? How about we shave a fortnight off the six weeks and make it a neat month, and distribute that lost time between the holidays at Christmas and Easter or the half terms to spread out the pain? More than half of parents would support this, according to research by charity Parentkind. I'm not surprised. It would reduce parental breakdowns. It would spread out the exorbitant expense of the summer childcare bill – not unimportant when it can easily run to hundreds of pounds per child. And rather more importantly it would be better for the children because shorter holidays would give their little brains less time to forget absolutely everything that they learned the academic year before. Studies have shown that pupils regress during the long break as they get out of practice with reading and writing. Shorter holidays would mean a less rude awakening for them when they are required to go back to the daily rigours of school life, with fewer tantrums and tears at drop off. Academic standards would rise accordingly, as each year benefited from the reduced wastage of each summer before. But we know that the teaching unions would never tolerate it. And can you blame them? If you were in a highly unionised industry and were lucky enough to be in a job where you had six full weeks off in a row each and every summer, would your union agree? Not a chance. So we're stuck with it. But it would kinder and better all round for the vast majority if it were reformed. Meanwhile, ask yourself this: is it any wonder that Britons are choosing to have smaller families than ever – with about 1.7 kids per family, down from 2.4 40 years ago? No, I thought not.
