WHILE Ghislaine Maxwell languishes in prison awaiting trial over the Jeffrey Epstein sex scandal, the world is wondering what she will reveal about Prince Andrew’s alleged liaison with ‘sex slave’ Virginia Roberts.
But, in a bombshell interview with the Sun, the socialite’s former friend, Christopher Mason, says the Ghislaine will not betray the beleaguered Prince – who vehemently denies the allegations against him.
“Prince Andrew and Ghislaine were always fiercely loyal to each other and she wouldn’t give him up,” he tells Sun Online.
“I think she’ll still have his back and will protect him to the last.
“I don’t think U.S. prosecutors would have much of an appetite for shaming a British prince, but his refusal to cooperate with their enquiries may spur their determination to exert maximum pressure on Ghislaine to turn on him.”
British journalist Christopher, who is based in New York, became a close friend of alleged pimp Maxwell after they met in 1989 and says her connection to powerful men, including Prince Andrew, meant she was the perfect match for social climber Epstein.
As a couple they hobnobbed with the likes of Donald Trump and wife Melania and former US president Bill Clinton,
“Jeffrey was supremely ambitious but he was never a cocktail party kind of guy,” says Christopher. “He was only interested in hanging out with powerful people.”
Although he only met Prince Andrew once, Christopher says he was well aware of Maxwell’s high-dubious friendship with the royal.
“I met them both on one occasion when they were walking down Madison Avenue, and he told me he was staying at Epstein’s vast New York house,” he says.
“It seemed natural that, of course, if Prince Andrew was in New York he would be hanging out with Ghislaine Maxwell because she cultivated powerful and socially prominent people.
“It was also the perfect instance of the kind of people Jeffrey was hanging out with.”
‘Guessing game’ with Prince Andrew over teen’s age
In a lawsuit filed in 2015, Virginia Roberts – now Giuffre – claimed that Epstein and Maxwell groomed her at 15 and ‘trafficked’ her to Prince Andrew three times when she was 17.
In Surviving Jeffrey Epstein, which airs on Crime+Investigation tonight, Virginia says the Prince “should be held accountable because he’s an abuser.”
She adds: “Prince Andrew is not the Prince from the fairy-tale stories you read.
“Before he abused me, Ghislaine does this guessing game and he guessed right – I was 17.
“He compared me to his daughters saying ‘Oh my daughters are a few years younger than you’.”
Model agency boss Lisa Phillips, who spent time at Epstein’s houses in New York and the Caribbean Island of Little St James told the Sun that Virginia had been crying when she told her she had sex with Prince Andrew.
Lisa claimed: “She told me Jeffrey told her to go into a bedroom and have sex with Prince Andrew.
“She said Andrew had sex with her, and left the room. I think she was confused by Jeffrey — manipulated by him. She felt like she had to do it.”
She said she confronted Epstein who told her: “It’s nice to have things on people.”
There is no suggestion the Prince knew of Epstein’s demand or was involved in any non-consensual sex and sources close to him branded the allegation “baseless”.
Secret cameras ‘hardwired’ into Epstein’s home
In the same documentary Christopher reveals Maxwell asked him to write a creepy 40th birthday song about her former lover.
Chillingly she specifically asked for lines about his “24 hour erection” and “schoolgirl crushes” to be included.
The 58-year-old heiress is now facing charges of sex trafficking and accusations of procuring girls for Epstein – who died in jail after being arrested on paedophile charges in 2019.
Last month it was claimed that Maxwell had kept sex tapes of Epstein’s powerful friends with young girls, filmed on secret cameras in his houses in New York and Palm Beach and the Caribbean hideaway dubbed “paedo island’.
Now Christopher – who has attended parties at Epstein’s homes – claims surveillance cameras were “hard-wired” into the £60million townhouse on New York’s East 71st Street that Epstein took over from Victoria’s Secret boss Les Wexner.
“I had no idea of [secret sex videos] at the time, because I didn’t know of any kind of sexual depravity with regards to Epstein and certainly not Ghislaine,” he says.
“But I certainly knew at the time that there was a panic room and that there were rooms with security cameras. So video surveillance seemed to be hardwired into that house.”
Epstein romance replaced ‘monster’ dad
During his friendship with Maxwell, Christopher was unaware she was involved in Epstein’s sick sex ring – which saw dozens of underage girls tricked into giving the billionaire £150 massages before being sexually assaulted.
But he reveals that friends missed red flags along the way, recalling a party thrown for her mother Elizabeth at Epstein’s palatial New York home in 1992.
“It was a large party and Ghislaine invited all of her closest friends which included me,” he says.
“There was a rumour going around the room that Ghislaine’s boyfriend Jeffrey liked schoolgirls, and that Ghislaine made it her business to introduce him to posh schoolgirls from the posher New York schools.
“It just seemed really odd and kind of unsavoury but it also seemed relatively innocent, like a naughty interest.
“There wasn’t a sense at the time of there being anything sordid and certainly no sense of sexual depravity. Of course, it sounds revolting now.”
