‘RHONY’: Carole Radziwill Explains Her Emails to Ghislaine Maxwell in Epstein Files

Carole Radziwill addressed being mentioned in the Epstein Files on the October 13 episode of The Real Housewives of New York City. It was the first time she discussed her connection to Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of child sex trafficking in 2021, on the show.

Like she’s said in the past, Radziwill reiterated that she never knew Jeffrey Epstein. “Ghislaine never spoke about him,” she shared. She also clarified that she never visited Little St. James, the island owned by Epstein until he died in 2019. Sai De Silva rattled off questions to Radziwill, specifically about the nature of her relationship with Maxwell.

“In the early 2000s, it would be strange if you went out to a big event in New York and Ghislaine wasn’t there,” Radziwill explained. “I was friendly with her. We had a couple mutual girlfriends and when I would see Ghislaine, it would always be with these mutual girlfriends. But I didn’t know Jeffrey Epstein. I never met him. She never talked about him.”

Radziwill made it clear that she and Maxwell were never “close friends” and explained that they met shortly after her late husband, Anthony Radziwill, died in 1999. “It was December, the holidays. Our mutual friend told her, ‘Carole’s husband just passed away. She’s in London by herself,'” the Bravo star explained. “So I get a call and she said, ‘This is Ghislaine Maxwell. I’m so sorry to hear about your husband. Let me have my friends take you out to dinner.'”

While Radziwill tried to turn down the offer at first, she said Maxwell was “kind of insistent,” so she eventually gave in. “I would say a half hour later, maybe even less, I get a call on my little Nokia phone from the Duke of York. Prince Andrew,” she shared. “He’s like, ‘Let me take you to dinner.'” She confirmed that they “went to dinner and that was it” and described the experience as “kind of unmemorable.”

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De Silva then pressed Radziwill on why she and Maxwell eventually stopped speaking. “It’s like any friendship that sort of wasn’t that deep,” she shared. “We just kind of drifted apart. For instance, I knew probably all along that she probably would never be interested in Carole DiFalco, but she was very interested in Carole Radziwill. She was like a social climber. So if you had money, access to money, power, or a very famous last name, she made it her business to know you. If you lined up 10 women and said, ‘Which one was part of an international sex trafficking ring?’, it would not be her.”

De Silva pointed out that the emails between Radziwill and Maxwell that appeared in the Epstein Files made it seem like the women had a “great relationship,” and as Radziwill tried to explain the nature of the messages, her costar insisted, “The Epstein File pains me to my stomach as someone who’s a mother and I have a teenage daughter. I’m disgusted by it.”

Radziwill pointed out, “Can you imagine how much it pains me to read about it?” and in a confessional added, “This is not what we should be talking about. What we should be talking about is why, under two administrations, the Department of Justice and FBI never investigated any of the men. That’s what I’d be talking about if I had a teenage daughter.”

Then, De Silva asked Radziwill to recount the conversations she had with Maxwell. “There was something about girls in it, like, ‘I can’t wait to see the girls,’ or something along those lines,” she prompted.

When Radziwill realized what De Silva might be insinuating, she asked, “Do you think I’m part of an international sex trafficking ring?” She then explained that the messages she sent Maxwell are the same as she would send any friend before a get together. “You know how we’re having a girls’ trip right now? I’m sure I texted Erin [Lichy] saying, ‘I can’t wait to see the girls this weekend,'” she pointed out. “This is normal stuff.”

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Daisy Toye also clarified that the “girls” mentioned in Radziwill’s message “are not the [teenage] girls” that were victims of Epstein and Maxwell’s crimes.

“This is the story as old as time,” Radziwill insisted. “People do not present themselves to everyone as they are, especially if they’re involved in criminal f**ked up behavior.” She said she felt Epstein “got what he deserved” when he was arrested.

“It does shake me to think I knew someone and would even call her a friend who then 20 years later turned out to be a monster,” she concluded. “On my Wikipedia, it’s always a footnote.”

The Real Housewives of New York City, Season 16, Tuesdays, 8/7c, Bravo