Ghislaine Maxwell has given her first jailhouse interview, in which she shared that she feels "so bad" for her "dear friend" Prince Andrew.
In an interview that took place at her New York prison, the 60-year-old convicted sex trafficker said: "I feel so bad for him. I follow what is happening to him."
Speaking to the Israeli-American documentary filmmaker Daphne Barak, Maxwell continued: "I accept that this friendship could not survive my conviction. He is paying such a price for the association. I consider him a dear friend. I care about him."
According to the Sun on Sunday, which published the interview, Maxwell appeared "shaken" when she was told that the prince's legal team had claimed the two of them were never close.
When asked if she would consider being friends with him in the future, she replied: “I don’t have an expectation. People who I have been friends with, and very close friends with … I can’t think about what they will want to do or not do.”
Maxwell, whose father was the former Mirror Group proprietor Robert Maxwell, also shared her thoughts on an infamous photo of Andrew in which his arm is placed around the waist of 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre. Maxwell is seen in the background of the picture.
In the interview, the socialite appeared to do a u-turn, saying she now believes the photograph was not "a true image", having previously said it mostly likely was real. In an email to her lawyer in 2015, which was later leaked, she wrote: “It looks real. I think it is.”
The Duke of York paid a financial settlement to Giuffre, his accuser, which ultimately ended a civil case brought against him in the US.
Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years behind bars in June for procuring underage girls for her former partner Epstein to abuse between 1994 and 2004. She denies any involvement in sex trafficking.
Epstein was a billionaire financier and convicted sex offender. He was arrested in July 2019 on sex-trafficking charges and died by suicide in a New York City jail just over a month after he was detained.