The making of 'Who is Ghislaine Maxwell?' according to Katherine Haywood

Mumbai, July 5

The upcoming OTT docuseries 'Who is Ghislaine Maxwell?' follows the life and crime of the daughter of media baron Robert Maxwell.

The series dives deep into the life of the former British socialite, Ghislaine Maxwell, and uncovers how she ended up helping American financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein abuse and sexually exploit underage girls.

The producer of the series, Katherine Haywood, who is also an investigative journalist, spoke about what interested her to explore the series and why she thought this was in the public interest.

Haywood said: "I think the first thing we wanted to do was document her whole life, so it was biographical. One thing I was really interested in is delving deep into the part of her life before Epstein to see if there were traits that would suggest that she would go on to do this whether Epstein was around or not."

She added: "And this is part of the thing where everyone always frames her in relation to him. Obviously, he is so interesting and horrifying that you do gravitate towards that story, but I had to keep pushing him away and focus on Ghislaine's life before him, so he wasn't intruding at all. We found some amazing stuff that suggests to me that it wasn't all about him."

Explaining the titular character's traits, Haywood added, "She had these traits that meant within herself she had her own drive to do the things that she's now been found guilty of. Speaking to women who went to parties with her and to people in her school days, it's fascinating to see those parts of her personality.

"The dominant narrative is that she was charming, wonderful, privileged and lovely, then she met Epstein, and it went downhill. But actually, we show that things were not quite right before she met Epstein."

'Who is Ghislaine Maxwell?' is set to drop on the OTT platform Lionsgate Play on July 8.