The “Real Housewives of New York” star was friends with the disgraced socialite in the early 2000s.

Carole Radziwill breaks silence on appearance in Epstein files, friendship with Ghislaine Maxwell

The "Real Housewives of New York" star was friends with the disgraced socialite in the early 2000s.

By Daysia Tolentino

Daysia Tolentino

Daysia Tolentino is a writer at *. *She has written for * *since 2025. Her work has appeared in NBC News, Vulture, GQ, and InStyle.

EW's editorial guidelines

March 26, 2026 3:39 p.m. ET

Leave a Comment

Carole Radziwill at Caesar's Forum in Las Vegas in November, 2025. Credit:

Rich Polk/Bravo

*Real Housewives of New York* star Carole Radziwill has spoken out for the first time since her name appeared in a recently released tranche of Epstein files.

Emails between Radziwill and former friend Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 of helping facilitate Jeffrey Epstein’s child sex trafficking operation, were featured in the document dump. In one exchange, Maxwell calls Radziwill the “most wonderful, the most beautiful, the smartest, the best, the brightest” and refers to herself as “your BF friend.”

Now, Radziwill, 62, has broken her silence about her relationship to Maxwell, 64. She said the two were friends for about five to six years in the early 2000s.

“Imagine knowing someone and even being friendly with them and then they turn out to be, like, a monster,” Radziwill told the *New York Times*.

Radziwill and Ghislaine Maxwell in 2007.

Patrick McMullan/Patrick McMullan via Getty

* *reached out to Maxwell’s attorney for comment.

Maxwell had introduced the ex-journalist to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, for an interview featured on Radziwill’s old “Lunch Date” column in *Glamour,* according to the *Times.* Mountbatten-Windsor, 66, was stripped of his royal title last year following intense scrutiny over his ties to Epstein. He was arrested in February under suspicion of misconduct in public office related to some of his exchanges with the late sex offender, although he has always denied wrongdoing.

Radziwill said she never formally met Epstein, who was Maxwell’s one-time boyfriend. She said she saw him in passing at events.

Jeffrey Epstein and Maxwell in Balmoral, Scotland.

SDNY/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

***Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our ******EW Dispatch newsletter******.***

Radziwill said that she was shocked by the news of Maxwell’s crimes when they came to light. She added that she never would have guessed that the disgraced socialite was engaging in illegal activities.

“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 was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022. Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. He was 66.

- Celebrities & Creators

- Celebrity Feuds & Controversies

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Celebrity”