“A dark cloud hanging over Clare”: The Countess of Iveagh, Epstein links and a life of privilege, secrecy and controversy

When interior designer Clare Hazell married Arthur Edward Guinness, Earl of Iveagh, she stepped into Britain’s aristocracy and became custodian of one of the country’s grandest estates. Her rise from a modest upbringing in Reading to the upper ranks of the nobility appeared to be a modern fairy tale. But new reporting suggests the story carried a hidden and troubling past.

A months-long investigation by The Mail on Sunday says Hazell, later Countess of Iveagh, had significant contact with Jeffrey Epstein before her marriage. Newly released documents from the so-called Epstein Files indicate that the UK’s National Crime Agency informed the FBI in 2020 that she was “allegedly a close contact of Epstein”. Flight records cited in the documents show she travelled on Epstein’s private jet around 40 times over four years.

The same correspondence noted that a woman, whose name was redacted, claimed “she was sexually abused” by her. The Mail on Sunday reports that the accuser was Virginia Giuffre, who had previously alleged she was trafficked by Epstein to several powerful men. It also stresses that there is no proof that the allegation against Hazell is true and that it was never tested in court.

Both women have since died. Giuffre died in April last year, while the Countess died aged 51, two days before Christmas, following what her family described as a “cruel” battle with brain cancer. At her funeral on the Elveden estate, her two sons led tributes to a mother remembered with affection by those closest to her.

A source told the paper, “While she was alive, and particularly while she was so sick, people didn’t want to talk about the dark cloud hanging over Clare. She was universally loved by those closest to her. She led an exemplary life as a Countess, but few knew about her time with Epstein; if they did, they never talked about it.”

Giuffre’s own public comments about Hazell were complex. In a 2021 interview, she said the pair had been “intimate” but added, “I know she wasn’t forced into it; she obviously had a choice as we all did. I don’t think she necessarily wanted to be there. I can’t say anything bad about her.” She also remarked, “I didn’t understand Clare’s reasoning for being there. Jeffrey didn’t like older girls, but he did with her.”

Hazell’s early life was far from aristocratic. She was the daughter of a sales manager, raised in a modest home in Reading. According to friends and sources quoted in the investigation, she met Epstein in Britain before moving to the United States, where she later studied philosophy at Ohio State University. A former university friend said Epstein paid her tuition and living costs, describing the arrangement as “almost a personal scholarship” and recalling that Hazell referred to Epstein as her “benefactor”.

The same friend remembered visiting Epstein’s home with her and said: “She was an extremely intelligent girl… down to earth, she carried herself really well. There was a lot of grace and refinement.” He added that she frequently travelled with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, recalling: “She never seemed in distress. She would seem upbeat about leaving Ohio for the weekend… I would say that she was playing the game in her own way.”

After returning to Britain, Hazell reinvented herself as an interior designer and met Ned Guinness around 2000. They married quietly in 2001. A vicar who knew the couple said, “Clare was attracted to Edward because he was different. While everyone else in the room was talking about their last holiday or their trip to France, he was talking about his 3,000 tons of potatoes.”

Friends describe the marriage as largely happy, though the Epstein revelations cast a long shadow. In 2020, as president of a local branch of the NSPCC, Hazell faced an internal review after Giuffre’s public allegation. An NCA letter to the FBI noted the agency did not “hold any derogatory information” on her but raised the issue because of her past links. The NSPCC later confirmed she stepped down before its internal process concluded. The following year, she and her husband announced plans to divorce.

Those who knew her remain divided between sympathy and unease. One acquaintance said, “Did she do a deal with the devil when she was younger? Maybe. Does she deserve to have her legacy ripped away? No.” Another reflected on her final months: “Her feeling towards the end was one of defensiveness. She wanted to protect her boys.”

For supporters, she was “a lovely lady. So pretty, so bubbly, so kind.” For critics, her association with Epstein raises unresolved questions. With her death, and Giuffre’s before her, those questions may never be fully answered.

READ NEXT

• 12-year-old boy dies after shark attack at popular cliff-jumping spot
• “A dark cloud hanging over Clare”: The Countess of Iveagh, Epstein links and a life of privilege, secrecy and controversy
• ‘Top Chef’ winner Kelsey Barnard Clark’s divorce was finalized just weeks before DUI arrest
• Driver Narrowly avoids Cow after it Jumps Barrier and enters oncoming traffic on busy motorway
• Ryan Reynolds references Johnny Depp in texts tied to Lively and Baldoni dispute