A brand new documentary which sheds light onto the relationship between convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, money mogul and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and the Duke of York, is set to air on ITV tonight.
Good Morning Britain host Ranvir Singh will investigate Maxwell's recent conviction for recruiting and grooming teenage girls for the late financier and her friend, Epstein between 1994 and 2004, as well as their alleged connection to Prince Andrew.
But who are the characters involved in this story of abuse and deceit?
Which events led to their widely publicised and hugely controversial 'falls from grace'?
Ghislaine's earliest years were reportedly fuelled by despair and emotional turmoil. The daughter to notorious publishing tycoon Robert and neglectful mother Elisabeth 'Betty' Maxwell, she lost her older brother to a car accident and developed anorexia before the age of ten.
Being her billionaire father's favourite, despite claiming to have been the victim to a number of his abusive rages during his childhood years, she was soon elevated to the lavish London social scene in the 1980s.
Robert Maxwell's body was recovered from the sea on the coast on Tenerife when she was 30. A verdict announced that his death was the result of suicide, which Ghislaine has since asserted could not have been the case and that he was instead, murdered.
Without a close male companion in her life, in the years that followed, Ghislaine Maxwell would come to meet American financier, Jeffrey Epstein.
Accounts of how the two came to form an intimate relationship have differed largely over the years. One of Epstein's former business partners believed that Robert Maxwell had introduced his daughter to Epstein in the late 80s, whilst other reports assert that the pair became associated in the early 1990s at a New York party following her Ghislaine's takeover of her father's business.
Despite the nature of their relationship remaining unclear to this day, she remained closely associated with him for more than 25 years until his death in 2019.
In 2008 Epstein begun serving an 18-month jail term after pleading guilty to soliciting sex from girls as young as 14.
But it would not be until 2019 when the full allegations of his crimes would be heard . With the assistance of his companion Ghislaine, he trafficked minors and vulnerable young women to be used by him and a number of his high-profile peers.
Vast amounts of victims were interviewed over the accusations and Prosecutors called for property searches of his Florida and New York estates uncovered dozens of images of nude, underage girls.
He was arrested in New Jersey in July 2019 by the joint FBI-NYPD Crimes Against Children Task Force and entered a not-guilty plea.
Whilst being held at a correctional facility in New York amid the surfacing of more abuse accusations, Jeffrey Epstein, who was facing up to 45 years in prison if convicted, was found in his cell, reportedly following a cardiac arrest. He was rushed to hospital where he was pronounced dead.
In the months that followed, whilst Maxwell was continuously accused of grooming and recruiting minors for the sexual use of Epstein, a number of high-profile individuals who had formed relationships with the pair also came forward in an attempt to separate themselves from any association with the crimes - including the Duke of York.
Maxwell and Epstein had become close with several prominent individuals in elite circles of politics, academia, business and law - one of these individuals being Prince Andrew, whom Ghislaine had been friends with for a number of years prior.
Images of Jeffrey, Ghislaine and Andrew socialising together during the 90s have been widely publicised, as have photographs of the Prince standing with his arm around a 17-year-old who was later identified as one of Epstein's alleged trafficking victims, Virginia Giuffre.
During a damaging BBC interview with Emily Maitlis, the prince denied sex with any underage girls including Giuffre, but admitted to having resided with Epstein for three days in 2010 following one of his convictions for sex offences against a minor and claimed not to regret their friendship.
A year later, following masses of accusations, Maxwell was arrested by the FBI in July 2020 and charged on five counts of enticement of minors, trafficking children for sex, and perjury.
Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty of five out of the six charges in her trial, including sex trafficking a minor. Jurors did not find Maxwell guilty of one account: enticement of an individual under the age of 17 to travel with intent to engage in illegal sexual activity.
Shortly after the BBC interview, a statement from Buckingham Palace announced that Prince Andrew was suspending his public duties "for the foreseeable future".
Last week, he was stripped of his military affiliations and royal patronages.
Tonight will see Ranvir Singh unravelling the true crime story of how the privileged daughter of a billionaire sank into disgrace through her friendship with Epstein and how exactly Prince Andrew fits into the picture.
The presenter speaks with the notorious trio's extensive network of rich and powerful friends as well as some vulnerable individuals who ended up intertwined in the abuse.
'Ghislaine, The Prince and The Paedophile' airs tonight (Tuesday 18 January) at 9pm on ITV.
