Carole Radziwill Says She Was Friends with Ghislaine Maxwell 20 Years Ago and Had No Idea What She Was Doing

02 Sep 2026, 13:33 · Thought Catalog

Patrick McMullan / Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

Updated 36 minutes ago, September 2, 2026

Carole says the woman she knew is now serving 20 years for running a child sex trafficking ring with Jeffrey Epstein. She calls her “a horrible, horrible person doing horrible things.” Her name being in the Epstein files is now a storyline on her show.

Carole Radziwill’s name appears in the Epstein files because of her former friendship with Ghislaine Maxwell—alongside, as she put it, “many, many, many more people.” The former Real Housewives of New York star addressed the connection Tuesday during a Q&A with Andy Cohen ahead of the show’s 16th season.

At Vulture’s Reality Masterminds Celebration in New York City, Carole Radziwill takes the stage to speak to the audience on May 7, 2026. Photo by Michael Loccisano / Getty Images.

“Obviously, I didn’t know anything, as no one, you know, 20 years ago would have known anything,” she said. Radziwill added that it was difficult to accept that Maxwell, who had once been a friend, turned out to be “a horrible, horrible person doing horrible things.”

Andy Cohen, John Hill, and Carole Radziwill chat in a red-velvet booth while wearing headsets at SiriusXM’s celebration of 10 years of Radio Andy at Crane Club in New York City on October 23, 2025. Photo by Jamie McCarthy / Getty Images.

Radziwill has said she and Maxwell were social friends for roughly five or six years in the early 2000s. The relationship began in late 1999, shortly after Radziwill’s husband, Anthony, died. While she was in London, a mutual friend asked Maxwell to check on her. Maxwell called, and about 30 minutes later, Prince Andrew invited Radziwill to dinner and the ballet. Radziwill has said she had never heard of Maxwell before that day.

Jane Krakowski, Carole Radziwill, and Ghislaine Maxwell together at Nicole Miller’s 25th Anniversary event honoring Riverkeeper at Chinatown Brasserie in April 2007. Photo by Patrick McMullan / Patrick McMullan via Getty Images.

Maxwell later photographed the author portrait for Radziwill’s 2005 memoir, What Remains. Radziwill has since called the choice odd in hindsight, explaining that she asked Maxwell simply because she “had a real camera.”

Documents released so far include casual emails between the two from 2005. In one, Maxwell called Radziwill “the most wonderful, the most beautiful, the smartest, the best, the brightest” and signed off, “your BF friend (fingers crossed).” An FBI document also notes that Radziwill appeared in Epstein’s black book and had visited Maxwell’s New York home. Records show that Maxwell and Epstein sent her a FedEx Priority Overnight package in 2004.

At The Lawn Club in New York City, Carole Radziwill steps onto the step-and-repeat for the 2026 Vulture Reality Masterminds Celebration on May 7, 2026. Photo by Dia Dipasupil / Getty Images.

Radziwill has consistently maintained that she never knew Epstein and saw him only once, at a cocktail party hosted by Maxwell. Nothing in the files alleges that she knew about or participated in their crimes.

Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking and other crimes in 2021 and sentenced the following year to 20 years in federal prison. Epstein died by suicide in federal custody in 2019 while awaiting trial.

Radziwill returns as a full-time cast member for RHONY Season 16, premiering September 8. The trailer shows someone confronting her in the street—“She’s the one from the Epstein files”—and a castmate asking whether she ever visited Epstein’s island.

“No,” Radziwill replies. “You think I’m part of an international sex-trafficking ring?”

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