Ghislaine Maxwell Claims Princess Diana Went on a ‘Date’ with Jeffrey Epstein in London: ‘He'd Already…’
The Jeffrey Epstein scandal continues to haunt the royal family from the grave. Now, Ghislaine Maxwell, serving a 20-year prison sentence in the United States for sex trafficking in a newly released testimony has stirred fresh controversy. Maxwell has claimed that Princess Diana might have been 'set up as a date' for Epstein. The jailed British socialite made the remarks during a two-day interrogation with US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, transcripts of which were made public on August 22.
Speaking under oath, she alleged that the late financier met the Princess of Wales in the 1990s at a society event hosted by one of Diana’s closest friends, Baroness Rosa Monckton. “I don’t know if she was being set up as a date for him, maybe because she was,” Maxwell reportedly told Blanche, before adding that she was hesitant to 'speak badly of Diana.' She shared that Epstein claimed to have met the Princess at 'a big event,' and that photographs of them together existed. "I don’t know if he sat with Diana or if he met with Diana, and he’d already met her. I don’t know, but this (event), I believe, was organised by Rosa,” she added, as per the Daily Mail. Although Maxwell did not specify whether it was their first encounter or whether Diana and Epstein spent time together at the party, she stressed that the financier often moved in the same social circles as high-profile figures.
Monckton, the woman named in Maxwell’s account, was indeed one of Diana’s most trusted confidantes. Their friendship began in the early 1990s, a period when Diana was enduring the strains of her marriage to then-Prince Charles. Monckton later described their first meeting, facilitated by Flecha de Lima, wife of the Brazilian ambassador to London, as an instant connection. “The reason our friendship was so strong was because she was so needy at that time,” Monckton told The Times in 2017. Diana, she said, quickly confided, “I’m so unhappy, I don’t know what to do.”
That bond would grow deeper over the years. Diana agreed to be godmother to Monckton’s daughter Domenica, who was born with Down syndrome, and took the role seriously. She also extended remarkable personal kindness during an earlier tragedy in Monckton’s life, when she gave birth to a stillborn child. Diana offered her the chance to bury the baby in the gardens at Kensington Palace, even providing a key so Monckton could return whenever she wished. “What an extraordinary thing to do,” Monckton reflected later. “We had a very, very moving ceremony, and she gave me a key to the garden. She said, "'You come in whenever you want, policemen at the gate will know.’ I still have the key.”
Monckton, now 71, has since spoken openly about Diana’s struggles, particularly the emotional turmoil following the infamous 1995 Panorama interview with Martin Bashir. “She was jumpy, she was edgy, she thought she was being followed,” Monckton recalled. “Everybody knew something was wrong, but none of us could put a finger on it.” In letters written before her death, Diana herself acknowledged Monckton’s support, once telling her: “'You have listened to the anguish and heard the tears, but have led me through the minefield to safety beyond.'”