Celebrity Names We Never Expected To See On The Epstein Documents

What do Stephen Hawking, Al Gore, Cate Blanchett, and David Copperfield all have in common? They've been named in previously redacted court documents in connection with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. To make it clear, none of these people have in any way been accused of anything illegal, connected to, or aware of any alleged sex trafficking of young girls by Epstein and Maxwell. Their names, along with several other famous people, came out in recently released court files related to Maxwell and Epstein.

Here's the backstory as to how these documents came out. Before Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of helping traffic young women, some underage, to be sexually abused by Epstein, she faced a defamation lawsuit in 2015. That lawsuit was brought by Virginia Giuffre, who also sued Prince Andrew for sexual abuse connected with Epstein, and in December 2023, a judge ruled that previously redacted names in the documents from that 2015 trial should be released to the public in early January 2024.

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There was plenty of speculation about who would be on the list of 150+ names, and there seemed to be a hope that it would be a list of Jeffrey Epstein's clients. However, the documents instead included names of Epstein employees, witnesses, and some famous and influential people who had associated with Epstein. Some of those names we knew were coming — Bill Clinton's name on the Epstein list wasn't a surprise given their past ties, and it's the same thing with Donald Trump being named in the Epstein documents due to their history. But theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking? We definitely didn't see that one coming.

In the first batch of documents, totaling over 900 pages, Hawking came up a couple of times. He first appeared in an email between Epstein and Maxwell, where Epstein asks her to "issue a reward" to anyone in Virginia Giuffre's circle that could help debunk a claim about Hawking having taken part "in an underage orgy." He came up again in a request for Virginia Giuffre to produce any photos that she had taken with him.

Hawking did once go to Epstein's private island in the Caribbean — Little St. James — in 2006, per The Independent. Epstein reportedly arranged for Hawking to take a submarine trip while there.

Al Gore was another surprise name in the Jeffrey Epstein documents. His name was on the same list as Stephen Hawkings in a request to Virginia Giuffre to produce any images she had taken with him. He also came up in a deposition by Johanna Sjoberg, one of Epstein's accusers. Sjoberg was asked by Laura Menninger, a lawyer for Ghislaine Maxwell, if she had ever met him or seen Al or his wife Tipper Gore while at Little St. James — she responded in the negative both times.

As for the other big celebrity names in entertainment that came up in the testimony — Bruce Willis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Kevin Spacey, Cameron Diaz, Naomi Campbell, and George Lucas — their inclusion seems less salacious than it might seem at first since Sjoberg testified that, like Al and Tipper, she never met any of them during her time with Epstein and Maxwell. Sjoberg confirmed that she didn't hear Virginia Giuffre talk about meeting any of the aforementioned celebs. She did note that Epstein would name-drop people he said he'd been on the phone with, specifically noting DiCaprio and Blanchett. Representatives for DiCaprio, Diaz, and Blanchett have denied any connection, including any phone calls, with Epstein, according to The Guardian.

Epstein and Maxwell were pictured attending Campbell's birthday party on a yacht in 2001, but in a 2019 YouTube interview, she denied knowing anything that he was doing and called his actions "indefensible."

Jeffrey Epstein also reportedly had a call about celebrity hairstylist Frederic Fekkai. Johanna Sjoberg said that she was giving Epstein a massage when she testified that she heard Epstein say, "Fekkai is in Hawaii. Can we find some girls for him?"

As for the people that Sjoberg said that she did meet while with Jeffrey Epstein, there was Michael Jackson who she met at Epstein's house in Palm Beach, Florida. When asked if she ever massaged Jackson, she said no. She also met David Copperfield. Sjoberg told Sigrid McCawley, attorney for Virginia Giuffre, that she got to see Copperfield perform some magic tricks at a dinner that Epstein held, and confirmed that she felt Epstein and the magician were friends. Sjoberg also alleged in her testimony that Copperfield asked her "if I was aware that girls were getting paid to find other girls," though there was no mention of the age of any girls or further context to the question.

To reiterate, there have been no accusations of misconduct by any of these celebrities named in the unredacted documents in relation to Epstein. They do seem to show Epstein's desire to associate with high-profile and powerful people.