Paris Hilton addresses claims she was recruited by Ghislaine Maxwell

Paris Hilton has addressed long-circulating allegations that Ghislaine Maxwell once attempted to bring her into Jeffrey Epstein’s orbit.

The entrepreneur and reality-TV star, now 44, addressed the claims in a recent interview with The Sunday Times Magazine.

Speaking about reports that Maxwell had fixated on her at a party when she was only 19, Hilton was firm: ‘I don’t even remember ever meeting her,’ she said.

The story first surfaced in 2020, when Maxwell’s former acquaintance and journalist Christopher Mason described an encounter – apparently around the year 2000 – in which Maxwell allegedly spotted a young Hilton at a New York event and immediately expressed interest.

According to Mason, Maxwell stopped mid-conversation, exclaimed ‘oh my god,’ and told a friend that Hilton would be ‘perfect for Jeffrey,’ before asking for an introduction.

At that time, Hilton was newly signed to Donald Trump’s modelling agency, T Management, and beginning her rise as a fixture in New York’s nightlife. She was approximately 19 years old at the time.

The anecdote resurfaced in the docuseries Surviving Jeffrey Epstein, which included a photograph from the Anand Jon Fashion Show on September 18, 2000, showing Hilton between Trump and Maxwell, the latter smiling broadly in sunglasses.

The image has often been cited as evidence that Hilton moved within social circles frequented by Maxwell and Epstein, though Hilton herself maintains she has no memory of interacting with Maxwell at all.

Reflecting on why her name continues to be attached to these accounts, Hilton suggested the answer may lie less in personal history and more in her cultural profile.

‘I’m such a good clickbait name,’ she said, noting that her fame has often made her a magnet for narratives she doesn’t recognise.

Maxwell, who had a relationship with Epstein in the 1990s, was later convicted for her involvement in his sex-trafficking operation and has been widely described in court documents as his principal recruiter.

Mason told the documentary that, at the time, people around Maxwell found her role ‘puzzling,’ but rumours circulated that she was regularly seeking out younger women to introduce to Epstein – behaviour that, he said, was once dismissed as merely ‘a bit naughty’ before the depth of Epstein’s crimes came to light.

Hilton, however, remains firm in distancing herself from the pair, reiterating that despite the speculation, she has no memory of Maxwell ever approaching her.

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