“What the Epstein files have done is crystallize for all of us how power actually works in the shadows,” says journalist Vicky Ward.Davide Bonaldo/SOPA/ZUMA
In 2002, journalist Vicky Ward—then a writer for Vanity Fair magazine—was assigned to investigate a mysterious New York City financier named Jeffrey Epstein. During her reporting, she stumbled upon sexual abuse allegations against Epstein by Maria and Annie Farmer, whose account was ultimately cut from Ward’s piece, titled “The Talented Mr. Epstein.” That decision sparked recriminations between Ward and then–Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter that have continued for more than a decade.
In previous interviews, Carter has claimed that Ward’s reporting didn’t meet Vanity Fair’s editorial standards and that the allegations came too late in the editing process. But Ward says the magazine left out the Farmer sisters’ account after Epstein personally pressured Carter to remove it.
“I’ve since been asked if Tina Brown or any other woman had been an editor at Vanity Fair at the time, do I think the Farmer sisters’ allegations would have run?” Ward tells More To The Story host Al Letson. “The answer to that is absolutely yes.”
The Farmer sisters eventually came forward publicly with their accusations. Epstein’s pattern of abuse continued until he was ultimately indicted for sex trafficking.
On this week’s episode, Ward looks back at the editorial decisions surrounding her 2003 Vanity Fair profile of Epstein, the role Ghislaine Maxwell played in Epstein’s crimes, and what she thinks about the circumstances surrounding the convicted sex offender’s death.
Following our interview with Ward, we reached out to Maria and Annie Farmer for comment. Portions of their response appear in this week’s episode, and their full comment can be read here: “We trusted Vicky Ward with our firsthand accounts of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s crimes. She chose to omit our experiences and instead, in 2003, published a Vanity Fair article that sanitized, shielded and even enhanced his reputation. She then published another glowing profile on Epstein in 2011. Articles like Ward’s allowed Epstein and Maxwell to continue targeting other young women and girls with the same abuse for decades afterward.”
In response to the Farmer sisters, Ward wrote: “This is obviously very sad to read, and I understand Maria and Annie’s frustrations and disappointment. I have already apologized to them in my podcast series Chasing Ghislaine and I stand by that. I wish I could have gotten their allegations into the 2003 story for Vanity Fair. I was as disappointed as they were that their allegations were cut from the article, which is why I reached out to them again in 2015, and with their permission told the story of what had happened inside the magazine. I would not have rehashed all this in public, had they not wanted me to, and had I not hoped to reverse a travesty that should never have happened – and ensure it never happened again. I also understand that the internal politics inside Vanity Fair are small-fry, compared with what Maria and Annie have suffered, and I wish them nothing but the best.”
RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline: 800-656-HOPE
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