“The Real Housewives of New York City” alum Carole Radziwill is speaking out after her name resurfaced in files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffery Epstein.
The 62-year-old television personality was once close friends withGhislaine Maxwell, a longtime associate of Epstein and a convicted child sex offender.
During a recent interview with The New York Times, Radziwill reflected on her years-long relationship with Maxwell, the British socialite who was later convicted for her role in Epstein’s sex trafficking operation.
“Imagine knowing someone… and then they turn out to be, like, a monster,” Radziwill told the outlet in an interview published on Thursday.
“I wasfriends with herin the early 2000s, I don’t know, like, for five or six years,” she added.
Radziwill emphasized that, at the time, Maxwell did not strike her or others in their group of friends as someone capable of such behavior, and she was stunned to learn of her crimes.
“The thing about her that made it easy for me to spend any time with her at all was that she was very intelligent, she was educated,” Radziwill said. “If you lined up 10 women, and you asked, like, pick the woman who would be involved in an international sex trafficking ring, it would not be her.”
Maxwell is credited as the photographer of Radziwill’s author photo in her 2005 memoir “What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship and Love.” Radziwill’s name appears in a tranche ofEpstein-related documents made publicin recent months, which prompted renewed scrutiny of individuals who had any connection to Epstein or Maxwell.
The documents include contact lists, emails and social references, many of which have drawn attention despite no alleged wrongdoing on the part of the individuals mentioned.
The files contain emails between the former reality star and Maxwell, along with messages the socialite sent to others about her, includingBill Clintondonor and billionaire Ted Waitt and Teresa DiFalco, Radizwill’s sister-in-law and memoir editor, who died in 2021.
While speaking with the NYT, Radziwill explained that she originally connected with Maxwell since both women moved in overlapping New York and international social circles.
Radziwill clarified that her connection to Epstein was indirect and rooted in that friendship, which she said ended long before Maxwell’s crimes became public.
At the time of their friendship, Radziwill said she was working as a journalist and author following the 1999 death of her husband, Anthony Radziwill, a cousin of John F. Kennedy Jr. Maxwell, meanwhile, was known as a well-connected socialite with ties to high-profile figures in media, politics and royalty.
Radziwill shared that Maxwell once helped facilitate an introduction to formerPrince Andrew, who is now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Winsor after recently losing his royal title due to his own ties to Epstein, for a magazine interview.
Radziwill spoke with the former prince for her “Lunch Date” column, a celebrity interview feature that she contributed to Glamour magazine in the early 2000s.
