Sky has jumped on the Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell bandwagon, following the likes of Netflix with its documentary, ‘Epstein’s Shadow: Ghislaine Maxwell’. From her turbulent relationship with her billionaire father to an unwavering loyalty to a serial sex offender, Ghislaine’s privileged life is shown to be far from perfect. So much so, it’s almost presented as a justification for her actions.
On Wednesday 29 December 2021, former British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of recruiting and grooming teenage girls for sexual encounters with the late Jeffrey Epstein between 1994 and 2004. She was found guilty of five out of the six charges in her trial, including sex trafficking a minor, after 70 hours of jury deliberation. Ghislaine now faces up to 65 years in prison, to be decided at her sentencing this summer.
Supposedly investigating the “mysterious” life of Ghislaine Maxwell and her relationship with Jeffery Epstein, this Sky Original documentary tells a detailed and winding story of a sex offender with daddy issues. And yet, for some strange reason, the whole thing feels more like a slap on the wrist for her role in what they call an “industrial scale sex trafficking operation”.
The documentary’s description reads: “this three-hour documentary investigates the mysterious world of Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite and once heiress to the Maxwell fortune, whose life takes a sordid downturn when she meets Jeffrey Epstein — a serial sex offender. A glimpse into the complicated story of power, sex and money that leads to her arrest and pending trial”. From watching the first episode alone, it’s evident that this description is nothing short of problematic.
From the very beginning of the three-hour documentary, it’s clear that Ghislaine’s life didn’t take a “sordid downturn” when she met Jeffrey Epstein, it was more of a change of lane than direction. She grew up surrounded by corruption, was rewarded for bad, if not illegal, behaviours and was protected and provided for by her father, Robert Maxwell’s wealth. Anything she ever wanted, she got – including Oxford United football club.
When her father died, she protected him in return. Shortly after his passing, she was seen by witnesses destroying evidence of the Mirror Group pension scandal, in which he stole £460 million from the company’s pension fund. These actions show clearly the lengths she will go to for a man she loves, much like her relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Journalist and the documentary’s Executive Producer, Nina Burleigh said “the Ghislaine Maxwell story ultimately is going into those unanswered questions about what this was, why this was going on and not so much what happened to the girls and the women because we know what happened. We’re not disintegrating or putting that aside but it’s ‘what was this?’”. This stance is very telling of the kind of documentary ‘Epstein’s Shadow: Ghislaine Maxwell’ is, but I cannot understand how they can even begin to separate Ghislaine’s story from the girls and women her actions impacted so much. They aren’t two separate entities like this narrative portrays. They are intricately intertwined with one another and cannot be viewed in isolation.
Whilst learning more about Ghislaine’s life was insightful to say the least, I don’t believe her to be a victim of the corruption in which she grew up like this documentary seems to suggest. To me, it feels more like evidence of her disregard for the law and her repeated reward for doing so. Though the documentary may be well produced, no amount of cinematic effects can justify the presentation of Ghislaine Maxwell as a doe-eyed sidekick, rather than the conniving partner-in-crime her actions have shown her to be.
