When Carole Radziwill signed on to return to Bravo’s “Real Housewives of New York,” she likely didn’t see her former connection with Ghislaine Maxwell to be one of the season’s major storylines. However, during episode 6 of the most recent season, Radziwill opened up about her past friendship with Maxwell after her co-stars, specifically Sai De Silva, grilled her about their “weird” connection.
Carole Radziwill Gets Grilled By Co-Star Sai De Silva Over ‘Weird’ Relationship With Ghislaine Maxwell
15 minutes into the latest episode, Radziwill speaks with her co-stars, Daisy Toye, Jessel Taank, Hailey Glassman, and De Silva, about her name appearing in the Epstein Files.
The Epstein files, according to Britannica, are a “massive collection of court documents, flight logs, emails, photos, and investigative records related to the sex-trafficking and criminal activities of convicted offender Jeffrey Epstein.”
Radziwill’s name appears in the files alongside her former friend and close ally of Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell. The latter was sentenced to 20 years in prison for “her role in a scheme to [sexually] exploit and abuse multiple minor girls with Jeffrey Epstein over the course of a decade.”
However, Radziwill, who returned to “RHONY” after leaving the series in July 2018, said she and Maxwell were “never close” after De Silva grilled her about her “weird” relationship with her.
Carole Radziwill Said It Would’ve Been ‘Strange’ To Not Have Been Seen With Maxwell In The Early 2000s
As the conversation continued, Radziwill clarified that she was not part of an “international sex ring” and that her relationship with Maxwell came by way of mutual friends.
In fact, the reality star said it would’ve been “strange” not to have connected with Maxwell in the city in the early 2000s.
“We had a couple of mutual girlfriends, and when I would see Ghislaine, it would always be with these mutual girlfriends, but I didn’t know Jeffrey Epstein. I never met him. She never talked about him,” Radziwill maintained.
According to Radziwill, she and Maxwell connected after her husband, Anthony, an award-winning television producer, died.
Carole Radziwill Told Her ‘RHONY’ Co-Stars That Her Relationship With Maxwell ‘Wasn’t That Deep’
After a few years, however, Radziwill said her relationship with Maxwell fell apart, but it didn’t affect her because their friendship was never “that deep.”
“We just kind of drifted apart. I thought she was, for instance, I knew probably all along that she would not ever be interested in Carol DeFalco. But she was very interested in Carole Radziwill,” the Bravolebrity stated before saying Maxwell used whoever she could to elevate herself.
“She was like a social climber, so if you had money, access to money, power, or a very famous last name, she made it her business to know you. If you lined up 10 women and [asked] which one was part of an international sex trafficking ring, it would not be her,” Radziwill continued.
Radziwill Called Maxwell A ‘Monster’ After Learning Of Her Conviction
Maxwell was sentenced to two decades behind bars in June 2022, and Radziwill said she was stunned to learn the news.
“If you lined up 10 women and said, ‘Which one was part of an international sex trafficking ring?’, it would not be her,” the “What Remains” author shared. “People do not present themselves to everyone as they are, especially if they’re involved in some criminal, f–ked up behavior.”
She added that knowing she was friends with someone who “turned out to be a monster” still shakes her before revealing that her connection with the convicted felon is like a stain she can never remove.
Radziwill Calls The Constant Claims About Friendship With Maxwell ‘Harassment’
Following the episode, Radziwill wrote about her previous relationship with Maxwell from a new perspective.
In her Substack post, published by PEOPLE, Radziwill acknowledged the mental discomfort she’s felt for years about her friendship with Maxwell after learning she was “implicated in sex crimes.”
Despite losing contact years ago, Radziwill said she’s constantly swarmed by false claims in social media posts from “internet sleuths” who want to paint her in a negative light.
“It will never be true,” she wrote. “At this point, it’s just harassment from an army of haters, bots, and trolls.”
She continued, “You may not like me because we don’t align politically. Or that I’ve feuded with your favorite Housewife. That’s fine. You may think I’m old, annoying, pretentious, or look like Steven Tyler. That’s okay too. Disliking someone is an opinion — smearing their reputation is something else.”
