Warning: This article contains discussions of sexual abuse which some readers may find distressing.
A woman who was groomed by Jeffrey Epstein has opened up about the moment she was presented with a schoolgirl outfit after being invited to the financier's home in Florida.
When Anouska De Georgiou was just 16 years old, she had a chance encounter in a Paris hotel lobby with 'infectious' socialite Ghislaine Maxwell after connecting through mutual friends.
The meeting would change her life.
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Maxwell would go on to groom Anouska, bringing her into contact with Epstein and facilitating a number of encounters in which the disgraced financier was able to abuse her over several years.
In August 2019, she became the first Brit to publicly disclose that she'd been abused by Epstein following the financier's death.
Now 49, Anouska has spoken about her experience in an interview for LADbible's Minutes With series, detailing a 'frightening' trip to Epstein's Palm Beach estate during the 1990s, where she was expected to dress up as a schoolgirl.
"When I got there, I didn't really know where I was," she recalled. "I didn't have the ability to call anybody."
With no phone and no way of contacting her family, an 'exhausted' Anouska was taken to her room, where she found a schoolgirl outfit laid out for her on the bed.
"I knew exactly why it was there and what it was for, but I thought the best thing to do was pretend I had no idea why it was there or what it was for, so that maybe it would go away," Anouska said, explaining that she initially told Maxwell she thought someone had left their clothes in her room by mistake.
Maxwell swiftly corrected her and laid bare the gravity of the situation. Anouska was expected to wear the outfit to deliver Epstein his tea.
Recalling her panic, she continued: "[Maxwell] said, 'What's the matter? Don't you like to play dressing up?' I didn't say anything, I sort of laughed. And she said, 'Go on, off you go. Pop it on and I'll give you the tray.'
"I didn't know where I was, I didn't have anyone to call and I was so frightened."
"The grooming process is like being slowly cooked"
Likening her experience with Epstein and Maxwell to the 'boiling of a frog', Anouska explained that her experience didn't start with abuse, but instead became a gradual process.
"If you put the frog in cold water and heat it up slowly, it doesn't know it's being boiled," she said.
"But if you throw a frog in hot water, it jumps out. So I think that the grooming process is like being slowly cooked.
"Obviously, I want to go back to my younger self, and I want to pull myself out of there. And I want to say, "You don't have to do this. "You can tell people." But the truth is, you know, that was not a time; this was a long time before the Me Too movement.
"This was in the nineties, and... Probably lots of people would not have listened to me."
Anouska explained that she soon began to dissociate during her encounters with Epstein as a means of escaping the sexual abuse she was being subjected to.
Watch Anouska's full Minutes With episode below:
"I'm grateful for that tool, you know, because it helped me to be there but not be there," she added.
Dissociation wasn't Anouska's only coping mechanism, as the former model and actor also began to rely on substances to block out her experience.
"After that trip to Palm Beach, I had very little self-esteem left."
"Something like a switch flipped for me"
A major turning point came for Anouska after the birth of her daughter in 2013.
"I saw how precious and fragile this baby girl was, and I saw that I was that too," she explained. "I had this realisation of what had happened to me and how hard I would fight so that that would never happen to my daughter.
"Something like a switch flipped for me."
Learning about Virginia Giuffre's story after she spoke out against Maxwell and Epstein was another turning point for Anouska, who described feeling a sense of 'maternal rage' that another woman had gone through the same experience as her.
Now nearly 50 years old, Anouska refuses to be silenced, both for herself, her daughter and all the other women who were abused by Epstein.
"I know how to be afraid and to do the right thing anyway," she added.
"I will not be quiet. I will not be silenced. I will not be intimidated. And I am saying that for my daughter, for other people's daughters, for Carolyn [Andriano], for Virginia, for all the others who didn't make it, that we don't hear about. And for myself."
If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article and wish to speak to someone in confidence, contact The Survivors Trust for free on 08088 010 818, available 10am-12.30pm, 1.30pm-3pm and 6pm-8pm Monday to Thursday, 10am-12.30pm and 1.30pm-3pm on Fridays, 10am-12.30pm on Saturdays and 6pm-8pm on Sundays.
Topics: UK News, Jeffrey Epstein
Brenna Cooper