The following is a transcript of episode five of my new podcast series, ‘The Life and Death of Jeff’. If you’d like to listen to/watch the episode, please scroll to the bottom.
In this episode we’ll be continuing our journey through the sordid Jeffrey Epstein scandal by taking a stroll through Jeffrey’s infamous island. You’ll also be able to listen to my interview with the French designer who helped develop the island and the mysterious so-called ‘temple’. And then we’ll be diving into another scandal - a honeypot scandal that has never before been fully exposed and that I can reveal, for the first time, involved one of Jeffrey’s girlfriends, the son of the United Kingdom’s Queen Camilla, cocaine, and a dodgy tabloid newspaper.
So, without further delay, let’s push forward on our quest for the truth…
“AN ENCHANTED ISLAND HAUNTED BY THOSE NYMPHETS OF MINE AND SURROUNDED BY A VAST, MISTY SEA” – Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
The island, nicknamed ‘Little St. Jeff’, rises out of the Caribbean and into the warm tropical air, a dusty green teardrop floating in deep blue water. White stone terraces step down toward quiet coves. A single pier stretches outward like a finger testing the temperature of the sea. Sculpted hedges, pristine lawns and palm trees are arranged as if by careful hand.
Around the same period of buying the island, Jeffrey began assembling his physical offshore infrastructure.
The United States Virgin Islands occupies a peculiar position in American law. It is under U.S. sovereignty, but treated as a separate tax jurisdiction. For Jeffrey, this meant that advisory fees earned from mainland U.S. clients could be booked through Virgin Islands entities and legally taxed at a fraction of what would have been owed in New York. It was offshore without appearing foreign. This was the same logic exploited by global tycoons whose empires run through island jurisdictions, including figures such as Richard Branson, whose island Jeffrey visited and whose companies for decades have routed ownership, licensing, and profits through low-tax island regimes. Jeffrey mastered both worlds at once: the private offshore universe of international billionaires and the quasi-domestic offshore territory used by American elites.
Internal banking records later showed Jeffrey routing massive wire transfers through Virgin Islands entities labeled only as “consulting” or “services,” with layered shell companies shielding beneficial ownership. Prosecutors would later describe his corporate web as a structure deliberately designed to conceal transactions and frustrate scrutiny. The island was not merely a destination. It was a financial instrument. Construction contracts, aviation fuel, maritime services, payrolls, security, and logistics all flowed through the same tax-advantaged architecture. Visitors arrived by private plane into a jurisdiction engineered for barely-legal tax evasion and reduced oversight.
That was the service that Jeffrey sold.
But he did, as Ghislaine Maxwell attests, clearly love his island and saw it as far more than just a convenient tax loophole.
“He purchased the island in 1996 and he was friendly with the owners,” Ghislaine told Todd Blanche. “And originally, we went to the island as guests of the owners. And then I guess at some point the owners told him they wanted to sell and he decided to purchase it. The island was very rustic. I loved it.
“We were often on the island, because he loved it. He really, really loved it. And we would go all the time. Mostly the early phase was based on improvements that could be made on the island, always going with new architects, new designers, new construction people. I’d say the first two years, almost every trip, not every one, but almost every trip contained an individual who would be brought on board to have an opinion as to how to -- I don’t want to use the word ‘improve’ the island, because I don’t think you could improve it, but to develop it.”
The island itself has become a symbol of the entire scandal and the focus of many a conspiracy theory. Around 30 hectares of rocky hills, forested groves, sheltered inlets and coral-fringed shores graced by a year-round tropical climate, he purchased it for $7.95 million in 1998 and instantly began construction work. A large main residence was built in a villa-style with colonnades, guest villas, a helipad, a private dock, swimming pools, a tennis court, slipways, and roads linking the buildings that he had surrounded by extensively landscaped lawns and gardens. Only reachable by boat or helicopter, the secluded island became his home from home, and a place where he could entertain a variety of famous friends and associates, from Peter Mandelson to Stephen Hawking, all waited on by hired members of staff.
Its most distinctive feature, now referred to by the press as “the Temple”, was a blue and white-striped box-shaped building topped with a golden dome. Could it have been built to facilitate his harem in some capacity? Or did it, as many unhinged conspiracy theories would have us believe, house an underground tunnel and chamber used in the trafficking and ‘ritual satanic abuse of children?
The evidence tells us that the answer is no. According to construction and permit records, the original plan submitted around 2010 described it as a music pavilion intended to house a grand piano, an instrument of which we already know Epstein was somewhat a master at playing. Somewhat pokey inside compared to the turquoise-ceiling cabanas, grand fireplace-adorned main residence, and the comfortable guest pavilions nearby, the two-floored structure was visited by Patrick Baron, a piano tuner who was flown in to work on the piano, and who confirmed that the interior simply consisted of, “a black grand piano, bookshelves, a dark wood desk, and a portrait of Epstein or the Pope.” Dressing the dome outside, two gold bird-like statues on the roof were removed or lost when Hurricane Maria battered the island in 2017.
One of the people brought to help develop the island and the temple was famous French architect and designer Robert Couturier.
I reached out to Mr. Couturier and, late one night, we discussed his involvement with Jeffrey and Little St. James. The following is a recording of what he told me:
I also asked him about the so-called ‘Temple’ and the conspiracy theories surrounding it, not least of all the claims that it had some sort of esoteric influence and purpose.
“I never felt that someone like Jeffrey Epstein had any inclination for the spiritual world,” he said. “The idea of, of, you know, evil, devil worshipping, and all of that is, in my opinion, complete bullshit. Sure, it was a weird building, even the builders thought it was weird. But it was fun to build.”
Some of the viral conspiracy theories have focused on the ominous patterns on the floor outside the front of the structure, with armchair detectives insinuating they were influenced by ritualistic pagan designs. But Robert was clear that this is hogwash, revealing that Jeffrey had simply asked for a unique design, that several were drawn into a sketchbook at random, and that eventually he chose one he preferred.
The dome was fabricated and painted on the mainland. The ceiling was partially decorated with a Greek-themed mural. Computers, a sound system, air conditioning and a giant carved bookcase soon followed. But Robert didn’t stay to see its ongoing development.
“I came back from the island with him,” Robert remembered his final day in Jeffrey’s company. “And I was sitting in his plane. I was very embarrassed because when we had got to the airport, and if the person who is, you know, the owner of the plane and he’s a sex offender, then you have the police there. You sort of try not to see, and try not pay attention, but it’s very difficult not to. And on that flight back, I was looking at his hands. It had been only four, maybe six weeks I had worked for him, but I told him, I said, ‘Listen, I can’t work for you anymore. I just can’t. I’m sorry. I can’t.’”
By now, Jeffrey had a reputation for being a mysterious figure dripping in sleaze.
His sexual appetite having gone completely out of control some time ago, he now made sure that he had a long list of women to visit him every day for happy ending massages and B.D.S.M sessions. Sarah Kellen was the main assistant who scheduled his so-called appointments. The women, mostly beautiful aspiring models, artists, sugar babies, prostitutes and any of their friends whom Jeffrey found attractive, would come and go every day, with Jeffrey receiving at least three massages daily. And some of the women, at least his favourites, were often invited to come to his island.
The often came in small groups. They would would be shown how to provide massages. They would be told Jeffrey’s sexual preferences and how best to please him - being topless. Massaging his feet. Straddling his back and then, when he flipped over, letting him use vibrators on them while they did one of his favourite things: squeezing his nipples and giving him oral sex.
In between massages, Jeffrey would often work while the women enjoyed the island, went jet skiing, sunbathed by the pool or on the beach. They would sleep in the cabanas, each seemingly taking turns to visit Jeffrey whenever her wanted a massage, though they would all frequently also have lunch with him outside on one of the verandas or spend time with him watching movies in the main house.
Oddly, it doesn’t seem that Jeffrey’s close girlfriend at the time, British-born Shelley Lewis, was particularly bothered about the arrangement, continuing to spend time with Jeffrey despite it being obvious that he was taking unfaithfulness to another level.
One of the women who visited his island was blonde-haired, blue-eyed Anouska Honey de Georgiou, who, like Shelley, also came from England.
Born in the late 1970’s in Ascot, Surrey, by 1993 Anouska was a 16-year-old fashion model navigating the competitive London agency scene. The daughter of a wealthy British financier and a former debutante model, she possessed an upper-class pedigree but carried the emotional fractures of her parents’ recent, bitter divorce.
The official introduction to Jeffrey took place in London, initiating a ten-year career mentorship whereby Jeffrey bankrolled her high-end modelling portfolio shoots, bought her expensive designer wardrobe pieces, and footed the bill for luxury, first-class flights across the Atlantic.
Over the next decade, she was routinely flown to his Upper East Side townhouse in New York, his Parisian apartment, his Palm Beach mansion, and his private island.
They would spend time together, engage in sexual activity, and Jeffrey would shower her with expensive gifts and, as with his other young women, act as somewhat of a sugar daddy to her.
Anouska had turned down a place at Oxford University to pursue a career as a model and actress. Working as a model for Playboy, she became connected to numerous high-profile stars, including having a relationship with Baywatch’s David Hasselhoff.
A former friend of Anouska informed me that, at the time, it was rumoured that the pair split partly due to Anouska allegedly tipping off the press as to when and where they would be out together in public, in an attempt to snag herself some media attention and raise her own profile.
She also allegedly had ties to Donald Trump. In November 1997, the Mirror on Sunday reported the following in its “Confidential” gossip page written by the late Chris Hutchins: “Just weeks after ditching his second wife, America’s best-known billionaire Donald Trump has fallen under the spell of a 20-year-old English girl. Trump, 50, who has failed in his bid to secure the services of Princess Diana’s butler Paul Burrell, was in search of another British trophy when he met London model Anouska De Georgiou at a party in Manhattan. Several millionaires already had their eyes on Anouska. But she was there with Robert Maxwell’s daughter Ghislaine, who has introduced several of her attractive friends to the property developer. And none of his would-be rivals owned a vast mansion in Florida like Donald does: Mar-a-Lago (where I have dined with him and his outgoing wife Marla) is enough to make any young girl go weak at the knees. After their meeting, Trump flew Madam Maxwell and the model south to the Sunshine State, where all three enjoyed a happy weekend together. When they returned to New York, Anouska was installed in one of Donald’s many apartments there. Ms De Georgiou likes older men – she went out once or twice with Joanna Lumley’s ex-husband Jeremy Lloyd, who is 45 years her senior.”
Whilst never having accused Donald Trump of any inappropriate behaviour, Anouska has since claimed that, whilst over the legal age of consent, she was abused by Jeffrey for several years.
“Jeffrey Epstein manipulated me, coerced me and abused me,” she told the Evening Standard. “He cannot fathom what he did to us… The abuse, spanning several years, was devaluing beyond measure and affected my ability to form and maintain healthy relationships, both in my work and my personal life.”
Anouska attending the premiere of children’s film, Charlie and the factory. Her top ‘happened’ to come unfastened on the red carpet... ‘conveniently timed for when she stepped in front of paparazzi
Using the pseudonym ‘Kate’, she was also a prosecution witness against Ghislaine Maxwell at her trial. However, the judge instructed the jury during that trial that the testimony of neither “Kate” nor Annie Farmer could be used to indict Ghislaine, because both were over age when they claimed they were abused.
It was later revealed during that trial that Anouska had sent Jeffrey letters whilst he was in prison and had even offered to send him photographs of herself.
And something else was also briefly touched upon in that trial - the revisiting of a famous tabloid scandal, since long forgotten and never fully revealed, until now.
For the record, I see no reason for Anouska to have been allowed to use a pseudonym when acting as a witness. Outside the court room, she wilfully sold her story to the press and has given numerous interviews using her full name. But it is because of that pseudonym being used that journalists have been unable to tell you the truth about her involvement in an infamous incident that pocketed her tens of thousands of pounds.
It is ironic that Anouska’s middle name is ‘Honey’, for she acted as a honeypot to entrap the son of Queen Camila in a cocaine scandal.
Tom Parker Bowles was born in London on the 18th of December, 1974, the first child of Camilla Shand and Andrew Parker Bowles. His father was a senior British Army officer, a former cavalryman and an old friend of Prince Charles. His mother, who would eventually become Queen Camilla, had herself been part of the same aristocratic and equestrian social world as Charles since the 1960s and had long been in love with, and having an affair with, Charles himself…