Ghislaine Maxwell’s wealthy ex-boyfriend has revealed that he gifted her $7.2 million when they split—but the convicted sex trafficker still demanded “more.”
That is according to Gateway founder Ted Waitt, who recalled Maxwell “not being happy with the amount” and “wanting more” in new testimony to the House Oversight Committee.
Waitt, whose net worth peaked at $4 billion before the dot-com bubble crash, testified that he did not give Maxwell any additional funds after their split and that, in hindsight, he regrets ever associating with her.
“I can say unequivocally that if I knew then what I know now about Ms. Maxwell, I never would’ve befriended her or allowed her to be around my four children,” he testified.
Waitt, 63, dated Maxwell, 64, between 2003 and 2010—a period that overlaps with her close association with Jeffrey Epstein, though Waitt has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
Waitt testified that, in addition to the gift at the end of their relationship, he had also been giving her thousands of dollars each month while dating. Though he said they frequently spent time together, Maxwell was based in New York during their relationship, and he was in San Diego.
Sources told Politico in 2019 that Maxwell and Waitt went on a trip on his yacht with Chelsea Clinton and her husband, Marc Mezvinsky, in 2009. Maxwell and Waitt attended the couple’s wedding the following year.
Waitt testified that his desire to break up with Maxwell in 2010 was not mutual, so he gifted her millions because he “wanted to help her continue to live her life at the level she was accustomed to.”
“We lived a fairly extravagant life,” he added. “In hindsight, if I had to do it over again, I wouldn’t have done it.”
As part of her bid for a lighter sentence in 2022, Maxwell claimed that she had developed a “loving bond” with Waitt’s children and said she had hoped to become their stepmom.
Republican Rep. Nancy Mace asked Waitt on Wednesday whether breaking up with Maxwell was akin to a divorce, given how long they had been together.
“It was like a palimony settlement-type thing,” he said of the $7.2 million payment. “She was planning on spending the rest of my life with me and was giving, you know—.”
A transcript shows that Mace cut Waitt off. She then asked him, “Did you ever have like an agreement in writing with her when you were all together?”
Waitt answered that he did not.
Waitt was questioned next by Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna about whether he knew Maxwell was named as a co-conspirator in Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor. Waitt answered that he did not know until well after they had broken up.
Waitt testified that he had three teenage daughters during the period when he and Maxwell were together and that he was oblivious to the sex trafficking crimes she would later be convicted of committing alongside Epstein.
“Through the course of preparing for this testimony, I’ve discovered a lot of things I did not know about her relationship with Mr. Epstein in the time we were dating,” he said.
An attorney for Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence at a cushy prison camp that the Trump administration transferred her to against federal guidelines, did not respond to an email seeking comment on Waitt’s testimony.
Lawmakers requested testimony from Waitt after his name appeared in emails released as part of the Epstein files. Also asked to testify are the billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, the billionaire investor Leon Black, and Doug Band, a longtime adviser to Bill Clinton.
