A woman identified as Anya has provided an account to the BBC of her experience as one of several assistants housed and controlled by financier Jeffrey Epstein. She details how Epstein maintained power over women through a combination of false promises, psychological manipulation, financial dependence, and coercive control that she compares to cult dynamics.
Anya was initially approached through a modeling agency connection in Paris, where Epstein presented himself as someone with connections in the fashion industry who could advance her career. Over the course of nearly a year, she was subjected to a gradual grooming process involving unrealistic promises of modeling work and meetings with industry figures. After repeated rejections and isolation from her support network, Epstein sexually assaulted her while she was serving a sentence following a 2008 conviction for abusing a teenage girl. The assault occurred in a back room at one of his properties, after which she blamed herself for the incident.
Epstein’s control mechanisms extended far beyond the initial assault. He maintained financial dependence by controlling bank accounts and housing, monitored communications, gathered compromising material including intimate photographs, and created division among the assistants by pitting them against one another. Anya describes being required to write gratitude letters to her abuser and details undergoing unnecessary surgical procedures at Epstein’s insistence, including the removal of a tattoo that left permanent scars. She was also pressured to recruit other women into the operation.
Another former assistant, Sarah Kellen, corroborated similar experiences when testifying before the U.S. House Oversight Committee, describing how Epstein systematically dismantled victims’ autonomy and decision-making abilities. According to clinical psychologist Dr. Tara Quinn-Cirillo, coercive control can affect adults as well as children, contrary to common assumptions.
Both Anya and Kellen have since received compensation from the Epstein Victims’ Compensation Fund. Anya has decided to speak publicly to help others understand how women became trapped in Epstein’s network and to demonstrate that such manipulation extends beyond child victims to vulnerable adults.