When the subject of Carole Radziwill’s connection to Ghislaine Maxwell and her inclusion in the Epstein files arose on The Real Housewives of New York City Season 16, she took the opportunity to set the record straight amid swirling questions from her fellow cast members.
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Warning: This article contains mentions of sexual abuse.Â
On The Real Housewives of New York City After Show for Season 16, Episode 6, Carole said that it had been “so hard to navigate” how to properly address her past friendship with Ghislaine, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence “for her role in a scheme to [sexually] exploit and abuse multiple minor girls with Jeffrey Epstein over the course of a decade,” according to the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York’s office.
“On the one hand, I don’t want to be dismissive about it,” the RHONY ‘Wife explained, adding that she also wanted to avoid taking a “defensive” stance. “It’s just, like, I can’t be more transparent in this.”
Read on for everything Carole said about Ghislaine and the Epstein files on RHONY.
How did Carole Radziwill and Ghislaine Maxwell meet?
Carole said that “mutual friends” introduced her to Ghislaine amid a solo trip to London shortly after her late husband, Anthony Radziwill, died in August 1999. While abroad, Carole received an unexpected phone call from Ghislaine, who expressed her condolences and offered to have some of her UK-based friends take her out for dinner. Afterward, Carole and Ghislaine also frequently crossed paths in the New York City social scene.
“In the early 2000s, it would be strange if you didn’t go out to a big event in New York and Ghislaine wasn’t there,” Carole told a RHONY producer. “I was friendly with her. We had a couple mutual girlfriends. And when I would see Ghislaine, it would always be with these mutual girlfriends.”
As Carole clarified, however, “She was never one of my close friends.”
RELATED: Everything to Know About Carole Radziwill (RHONY Journey, Relationship History, Career & More)
What has Carole Radziwill said about Jeffrey Epstein?
During the RHONY cast trip to Moskito Island, Carole insisted, “I never knew Jeffrey Epstein. I never heard of him. Ghislaine never spoke about him.” Not only had she “never met him,” Carole also confirmed that she had never visited “Epstein Island,” aka Little Saint James, either. In fact, Carole said that she was glad that the late Epstein was arrested and charged with sex trafficking of minors in July 2019.
“When Jeffrey Epstein was arrested back a couple years ago, I thought, ‘Good. F–k him. Like, he got what he deserved,'” Carole told her castmates.
Futher addressing Epstein on the RHONY After Show, she reiterated, “I didn’t know anybody,” other than Ghislaine.
Is Carole Radziwill in the Epstein files?
Yes. As Carole shared on RHONY, “If you Google me right now, it says that my name is in the Epstein file,” i.e. the collection of documents related to the criminal investigation of Epstein and his associates. More specifically, the Epstein files included personal emails between Carole and Ghislaine, one of which was shown on screen in Episode 6.
Carole clarified on the RHONY After Show that her and Ghislaine’s emails never went much deeper than an occasional dinner invitation or asking about each other’s attendance at various events. “They said exactly what I’ve been saying for years,” Carole claimed. “Yes, I knew her 20 years ago. Yes, I even considered her, at one point, a friend.”Â
RELATED: How to Watch and Stream the RHONY After Show for Season 16
Did Carole Radziwill know Prince Andrew?
Yes. Carole revealed on RHONY that Ghislaine had arranged for her to have dinner with the former Prince Andrew, whose titles were revoked in 2025 amid the Epstein scandal, immediately after their aforementioned first phone call in London in late 1999.
“I would say a half an hour later, maybe even less, I get a call on my little Nokia phone from the Duke of York, Prince Andrew,” Carole recalled. “He’s like, ‘Let me take you to dinner.'”
When asked by her castmates if she and Prince Andrew kissed, Carole replied, “No. We went to dinner, and that was it. It was kind of unmemorable.”
Why did Carole Radziwill and Ghislaine Maxwell’s friendship end?
As for why Carole and Ghislaine stopped speaking, the RHONY cast member said, “It’s like any friendship that sort of wasn’t that deep. We just kind of drifted apart.” According to Carole, Ghislaine had been more interested in the Radziwill name than she actually was in her as a person, too. “She was like a social climber, so if you had money, access to money, power, or, say, a very famous last name, she made it her business to know you,” she told her castmates.
Carole Radziwill reacts to Ghislaine Maxwell’s convictionÂ
Carole was shocked to learn about Ghislaine’s child sex trafficking conviction. “If you lined up 10 women and said, ‘Which one was part of an international sex trafficking ring?’, it would not be her,” Carole said on RHONY, later adding, “People do not present themselves to everyone as they are, especially if they’re involved in some criminal, f–ked up behavior.”
She continued, “It does shake me to think that I knew someone and would even, like… call her a friend who, then, 20 years later, turned out to be a monster. And, like, on my Wikipedia, it’s — it’s always, like, a footnote.”
Carole described Ghislaine on the RHONY After Show as being “kind of nerdy,” adding that she “didn’t drink” or “do drugs.” She added that Ghislaine had a “nice” boyfriend whom she lived with throughout the entire time she knew her.Â
“Maybe this is part of it,” Carole said. “She felt, like, safe to be around because she was kind of like, you know, took care of things and, like, she was always out. She had a thousand friends, of which I was one of a thousand. And I knew just a couple of her mutual girlfriends, and that was our group.”
See Carole’s surprising reveal about her late husband on RHONY Season 16.
