Real Housewives of New York star Carole Radziwill is addressing her name appearing in the Epstein Files and her former friendship with Ghislaine Maxwell.
At an event with Page Six, Carole addressed the elephant in the room.
Re: The Epstein Files
“I mean, I felt like this isn’t something I shy away from,” she said. “Me and many more people found their names in these files.”
Carole said she believes transparency is important, insisting she “didn’t know anything” about Maxwell’s crimes at the time they were friends.
“It’s hard to think that someone you knew that long ago, even called a friend at some point, was a horrible, horrible person doing horrible things,” she said.
According to Carole, she and Ghislaine were friends for “five or six years” in the early 2000s. She clarified that their friendship ended long before GM’s crimes became public. Ghislaine Maxwell was even credited as the photographer for Carole’s author photo in her 2005 memoir.
“Imagine knowing someone, and then they turn out to be a monster.” It was GM’s intelligence and education that made it difficult to imagine she could be involved in such crimes.
“If you lined up 10 women, and you asked to pick the woman who would be involved in an international sex trafficking ring, it would not be her.”
What to expect on RHONY
Carole’s past friendship with GM is already a storyline in the Season 16 trailer. Sai De Silva brings up the Epstein Files. Carole clapped back, “You think I’m part of an international sex trafficking ring?”
In another scene, Carole is heckled on the street by someone shouting, “She’s the one from the Epstein files!”
Carole said her return to RHONY gives her “an opportunity to talk” about the files while emphasizing the importance of focusing on the victims and survivors.
“There are real victims and survivors that were brave enough to really stand up to these very, very powerful people,” she said.
RHONY season 16 premieres Sept. 8 on Bravo.
