The photographs of Ghislaine Maxwell seated on the Queen of England’s throne were taken inside the Throne Room at Buckingham Palace during a private visit in the early 2000s. In the images, Maxwell is shown casually perched on the historic coronation chair, smiling and appearing at ease—an extraordinary visual given the room’s strict symbolism and limited access. The throne is traditionally reserved for formal state occasions involving the monarch, making the images striking not just for their informality, but for what they signal about the level of access Maxwell enjoyed within Britain’s most exclusive royal spaces.


The photos later became emblematic of how deeply Maxwell—and by extension Jeffrey Epstein—had penetrated elite social circles long before their crimes were fully exposed. Once public, the images fueled widespread outrage and disbelief, reinforcing perceptions that Maxwell moved freely among powerful institutions with little scrutiny. The fact that a future convicted sex trafficker could sit on the throne associated with Queen Elizabeth II became a visual shorthand for institutional blind spots, privilege, and the failure of gatekeeping at the highest levels. In retrospect, the photographs are less about royal protocol and more about how proximity to power helped normalize and shield figures who were, even then, operating in deeply predatory ways.


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