Former talent agency boss had closer relationship with sex offender than thought, and supported him after 2009 arrest
A female executive at the top of the modelling industry had a close friendship withJeffrey Epsteinand introduced him to women on the agency’s books, a Guardian investigation has found.
Until last November, Faith Kates ran Next Management modelling and talent agency, which has represented the likes of Alexa Chung, Milla Jovovich and Billie Eilish, a position she held for decades as the founder of the business. She stepped down quietly just weeks before thefirst major Epstein files were released, saying she intended to focus on charity work.
Links between Kates and the late sex offender have previously been reported, but analysis of documents published by the US Department of Justice reveals a much deeper relationship than previously known, with emails showing Kates secretly took business advice from Epstein and discussed multimillion-dollar loans.
Kates appears to have met Epstein regularly, including on one occasion with the then Prince Andrew at a New York department store in December 2010, the week of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s now infamous visit to the city to supposedly call off his friendship with the financier.
Kates, 68, offered her support and “unconditional” friendship after Epstein was first convicted for soliciting a child for prostitution in 2009. She was still sending friendly emails weeks before he was arrested again in 2019.
More troubling is that across their nearly 40-year relationship it seems Kates connected a number of her models with Epstein, raising serious questions for the woman who has been responsible for the careers – and ultimately the welfare – of thousands of young women. There is no evidence to suggest Kates was aware of Epstein’s offending prior to his 2009 conviction.
The revelations prompted Next, which until now has not commented on its founder’s relationship with the sex offender, to thoroughly distance itself from her. In a statement to the Guardian, a spokesperson said the company was working to end all legal ties with Kates and that her relationship with Epstein “was completely and absolutely unknown to Next management and its top executives”.
A spokesperson for Kates said shehad “never put a model in harm’s way by sending them to inappropriate go-sees or meetings”, adding: “Epstein was a master manipulator. People around him knew only what he wanted them to know.”
There are more than 5,000 mentions of Kates in the files. Although some are duplicates, the emails between the two are frequent. The messages are often effusive in tone, with Kates regularly telling Epstein how good a friend he was, at one point telling him: “I really do love you like a brother.”
One of the first emails in the files was sent while Epstein was in prison for soliciting prostitution from a minor. Kates wrote:
18 July 2009 10.18am
I am and will always be your friend...Unconditionally...will always be there for you.
Хохо
Then, soon after his release, she repeated these sentiments.
