Reviews: Chasing Ghislaine (podcast)

‘Chasing Ghislaine’ is a podcast series on Audible, by journalist Vicky Ward, created shortly before Ghislaine Maxwell stood trial for conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport minors to participate in illegal sex acts, transporting a minor to participate in illegal sex acts, sex trafficking conspiracy, and sex trafficking of a minor.

Ward has every reason to want to create this podcast. Heavily pregnant (twins), she was assigned by Vanity Fair to write a piece on how Jeffrey Epstein made his money. She was already part of the ex-pat set in which Epstein’s wannabe girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell also circulated. Pre the #MeToo wave of famous actors busting Weinstein, the balance of power for victims was very different, and Ward found herself in uncharted waters.

Where it Began

Ward’s journey began in 2002 when she profiled Epstein for Vanity Fair. It turned into “a 19-year quest to uncover what - or who - is behind Jeffrey Epstein’s wealth, influence, and criminality”.

At the time, she didn’t realize just how close she came to uncovering the financier’s web of secrets, connections, and wealth that enabled his sexual crimes - and shielded him from justice for decades. As she investigated further, Ward unearthed almost unbelieveable ties to money-laundering, gun-running, and even international espionage .(The podcasts contain previously off-the-record transcripts and exclusive conversations with Epstein himself, verging between spookily menacing and attempting charm.)

Epstein and Maxwell

One single, complex, enigmatic figure appears time and again: Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s ex-lover, former employee, and co-conspirator. (There are even suggestions that she was actually the puppet master, although Ward is more empathetic.)

Epstein manipulated his way through Ward’s article research in chilling ways. It’s impossible to separate Maxwell from him, their stories are so heavily intertwined. He comes across as alternately awful about and to Maxwell, whilst also almost protective of her.

Much of the Epstein story has been covered elsewhere, and this podcast is great for filling the gaps and explaining how Epstein insinuated himself into the lives of the rich and famous, using Maxwell to help him acheive it.

Ward covers a lot of ground. Epstein’s past. The Epstein/Maxwell relationship. Maxwell’s childhood. Why Ward’s interview with the Farmer sisters never appeared in print, despite her covering their stories. In this, as with much of the story, times the podcast feels like Ward setting the record straight - the reason her reporting for Vanity Fair never broke the whole Epstein story. (I acknowledge that this may be my own projection having read so many different testimonies.)

‘Chasing Ghislaine’ is simultaneously a fascinating, easy to listen to account. There is little factual in the podcast that hasn’t been discussed or mentioned or rumoured before in the Epstein case, but if you’ve not followed the story closely, this is a thorough overview. Where it excels is the insights into the power that Epstein held, where he came from, and how Maxwell was a moth to flame.

At times victim, at other times enabler, almost encouraging of Epstein, Maxwell is complex: both a victim and a favourite of her father; a victim and an enabler of Epstein; kind to her own victims when it suited, cruel in the way she sacrificed them for abuse.

This is a story of money and power, of sleaze and abuse, and of the really complex relationship between Maxwell and Epstein. It delivers the truth as it is or was - factually checked, journalistically accurate and with the threat of Epstein’s power and influence always lurking in the background. (For me, the voice that’s never heard (in anything) is that of Maxwell herself.)

It backs up much of what Virginia Giuffre has asserted in her book, Nobody’s Girl, and her many statements and media interviews. The patterns Giuffre (and other Epstein victims) describes are echoed in Ward’s work. If Giuffre wrote to explain what the World had got wrong about her, to present the World with her side of the story, Ward’s work has echoes. The two accounts sit well together as different views, both true, of the same set of circumstances. They fill each others gaps to a large extent.

I have no qualms in recommending this podcast as a complementary source to whatever other Epstein related stories you may be reading/have read. It fills some gaps, rights some wrongs and points us at different sides of the same story, from a different perspective.

On its own, it’s not the full story. But nothing ever is in the messy, complex Maxwell/Epstein affair - or indeed any other grooming.