Sarah Ransome testified in a 2016 deposition that it was not long after meeting Jeffrey Epstein that she traveled to his private island, moved into one of his New York City apartments, and began treatment with his psychiatrist.
A young woman who spent approximately six months in the orbit of Jeffrey Epstein said the pedophile controlled most aspects of her life.
In newly unsealed court documents, Sarah Ransome said that she was introduced to Epstein in late 2006 after being approached by one of his female associates in a club. That female's name is redacted in court documents.
Ransome said in a 2016 deposition that it was not long after that meeting that she traveled with Epstein to his private island, moved into one of his New York City apartments, and started treatment with his psychiatrist, who was not identified.
“Jeffrey’s psychiatrist prescribed me lithium, Ritalin, and there’s a bipolar description drug that was also prescribed to me by Jeffrey Epstein’s psychiatrist,” Ransome said in her deposition. “I can’t remember the exact name of that bipolar drug. But I was started off with lithium and Ritalin.”
The lithium proved to be a problem however for Epstein, who Ransome said was not a fan of a common side effect of the drug — weight gain.
Ransome said her weight soon became a constant topic of conversations, with both Epstein and his longtime companion Ghislaine Maxwell telling the 5’8” model she needed to weigh less than 115 pounds.
“Weight was a massive issue for Ghislaine and Jeffrey, so the lithium just didn’t work for me. I mean, I put on weight quite quickly," explained Ransome.
She went on to recall the night this all came to a head during a trip to Little St. James, one of Epstein’s two private islands in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
“I can’t remember the specific conversation, how it went. We got into an argument about my weight, quite a heated argument,” Ransome recounted. “I recall it getting overheated and that I ran off and tried to swim off the island. I wanted to get as far away from Jeffrey and Ghislaine as possible.”
Maxwell and Epstein assembled a search party said Ransome, and managed to track her down before she left the island.
Once taken back, Ransome was given special permission by Maxwell to smoke, having been forced to quit because Epstein did not approve of the habit. “Jeffrey wasn’t allowed to know that we smoked,” Ransome said.
Epstein's focus was not just on the weight of these women either, according to Ransome.
“You know we had to look a certain way for Jeffrey. So if you put on a little bit of weight or, for example, if my hairstyle was wrong — Jeffrey, likes his girls to look a certain way,” said Ransome. “So, for example, there was one occasion when Jeffrey didn’t like my hair, and Ghislaine told me to change it .”
Epstein even controlled the way these women dressed and the beauty products they used while on the island, Ransome said. “All of the outfits — there were clothes provided on the island by Jeffrey Epstein, which were all Victoria’s Secret clothing: bikinis, nightgowns,” said Ransome.
Victoria’s Secret was owned by Epstein’s former client and friend Les Wexner, who claims he had cut ties with his one-time financial manager by 2006.
Epstein, a self-proclaimed billionaire, may have gone mid-market with the clothes he provided, but that was certainly not the case with the skincare he stocked on Little St. James.
“So Jeffrey provided cosmetics for all the girls. We had to look our best,” Ransome explained in her deposition. “So that was a Crème de la Mer facial mask that he regularly gave to the girls and their skin was nice.”
She added: “We had top line cosmetics in our bathroom to use at our disposal.”
Crème de la Mer makes three masks: a lifting and firming mask that cost $300 for 1.7ozs, a revitalizing mask that cost $200 for 2.5ozs., and a micro peel that cost $270 for 1oz. of product.
All three are meant to combat signs of aging and leave skin “revitalized,” “restored,” or “rejuvenated.”
Ransome said she eventually found herself banished by Epstein, and given a one-way ticket home to South Africa. She could fly back, she was told by Esptein and Maxwell, when her weight got down to under 115 pounds.
When she got home to South Africa she cut all ties. Then, in 2016, she agreed to share her story to support fellow Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre in her lawsuit against Maxwell.
That lawsuit stemmed from a 2015 statement in which Maxwell called Giuffre a liar when she went public with allegations that she was sexually assaulted by Epstein and Maxwell. Giuffre responded to that statement with a civil suit, accusing Maxwell of slander and libel.
That case was settled in 2017, on the eve of a federal court trial. The subsequent unsealing of court filings and documents from that case in the years since led to new charges being filed against Epstein and Maxwell by federal prosecutors.
