Disgraced socialite Ghislaine Maxwell has been placed in ‘solitary confinement’ after giving a TV interview from behind bars, prison insiders have revealed.
Maxwell, 61, appeared on Talk TV last month in a series of video calls and audio calls in which she spoke about life in prison and blamed her downfall on pedophile ex-lover Jeffrey Epstein.
Heads of the Federal Correctional Institution in Tallahassee are said to have begun an investigation because inmates are only allowed to do ‘video visits’ from a rigorously vetted list of friends, family and lawyers.
Sources tell the Daily Mail that Maxwell is believed to have violated the terms of her 20-year sex trafficking sentence by selling her story to a journalist.
However, Maxwell was quick to protest her innocence, even on-air at the time when Jeremy Kyle said she didn’t get a “fucking penny” for the interview.
She was later taken to the Special Housing Unit (SHU) – a ‘prison within a prison’ where inmates are locked up for 23 hours straight and fed through cracks in the door, it is claimed.
A source said: ‘About two weeks after the show aired on TV, Max was just minding her own business when they came in, turned her around and handcuffed her.
‘She was very upset, she was crying, she was screaming that she had not received any money, but nobody saw her again for three days.
‘The SHU is not a nice place. You go in there if you’re suicidal, if you fail a drug test, or if you get into a fight.
“It’s like a little box and you can only shower once a day. There is no contact from anyone, no privileges, they slide their meals through a crack.
“Normally people stay there for at least two weeks, but she left within about 48 hours because there was no evidence that she was guilty.”
Maxwell used his Jan. 23 interview with TalkTV’s Jeremy Kyle to complain about his 6am start and boring prison diet of tofu and beans.
She also sparked controversy by claiming, without evidence, that the now notorious photograph of Prince Andrew with Epstein’s victim, Virginia Giuffre, was a fake.
‘Ghislaine Maxwell has agreed to be interviewed for the first time in a series of audios and phone calls recorded behind bars,’ exclaimed Kyle, presenting his interview as an exclusive worldwide bombshell.
‘During that call, Maxwell told our interviewers and her brother Kevin, who was also present, that she was suffering from depression, having lost everything.’
The TV host directly addressed the question of whether Maxwell was paid for the exclusive chat, saying: ‘How much did we pay Maxwell for this interview?
‘Let me say categorically, not a penny and neither do we.’
Federal prisoners can schedule 25-minute video calls with an approved list of family and friends through the federal prison network’s CorrLinks system.
Prison friends say Maxwell insists she didn’t break any rules because she was talking to a bona fide longtime friend, filmmaker Daphne Barak, who was asking the questions that appeared on Kyle’s show.
The clips of Maxwell speaking were in fact taken from a longer interview with Maxwell conducted by Barak and produced by the US network CBS.
Barak had interviewed Maxwell on several previous occasions for newspaper articles and even distributed a photo of her behind bars without resistance.
What upset Maxwell the most was that they threw her into the SHU before they knew the facts,” said a source.
They added: ‘She hasn’t been the same since then, it has made her very sad and depressed. She thinks they are intentionally being cruel and mean to her.
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