The modeling industry has long served as a pipeline funneling vulnerable teenage girls to predators like Jeffrey Epstein and powerful figures like Donald Trump, according to two model-turned-activists.
Carré Otis and Stacey Williams are calling out what they described as a system designed to protect powerful men—men they say they encountered firsthand, including convicted sex trafficker Epstein, his associate Jean-Luc Brunel.
“There was a lot more organization than I think any of us could comprehend at that time,” Otis, 57, told host Joanna Coles on The Daily Beast Podcast. “It wasn’t just a Jeffrey Epstein, it wasn’t just a Jean Luc Brunel. There were folks working together again and again.”
In 2021, Otis was among dozens of former models who came forward with gut-wrenching testimonies of abuse they say they sustained at the hands of former modeling agency boss Gérald Marie, who headed Elite Model Management. Otis said she was 17 when he began raping her in his apartment in Paris—often, she has alleged, in his daughter’s vacant bedroom. French law enforcement has since closed criminal investigations into the stacked allegations against Marie, who is in his 70s, citing the statute of limitations.
Williams, for her part, briefly dated Epstein when she was about 25 and he was around 40, for several months in 1993. The former model also said that Epstein once confessed that he had secretly filmed her while she was naked, in an attempt, she believes, to assert control over her.
During that time, Williams, now 57, has alleged that she was brazenly groped by Trump while Epstein watched. Representatives for Trump have denied the allegations. The White House did not return The Daily Beast’s request for comment.
Trump’s affinity for models is well known, with his first wife, Ivana Trump, and First Lady Melania Trump both working as models when they met the now 79-year-old president. More than two dozen women, including former models and beauty contestants, have accused Trump of sexual misconduct; he has denied the allegations.
Throughout her modeling career, Williams said she “normalized” what she now sees as older, powerful men preying upon women.
“That said, I had responses that I think would have shown that somewhere I understood……on a safety level, maybe that something wasn’t right.”
Williams went on to detail one of her first experiences modeling in Paris, when, at a table with several other female minors and the esteemed French photographer Patrick Demarchelier, he implored them to go around the table and describe the underwear they were wearing. “He was leering, he was gross,” she said. “He was just like….no woman could have been dropped into that situation and said like this guy’s behavior is okay, you know?”
Williams emphasized that this scenario was similar to many others throughout her modeling career, and Otis echoed her sentiment.
“By the time I got to Paris, they owned me,” Otis said, referring to the model agency headed by her alleged abuser.
“Any money I would make went into repaying the agency…my passport was taken for safekeeping,” Otis said, likening the system in place for young female models to “human trafficking.”
“I had no say, I had no autonomy.”
Williams also noted that several women within the structure were complicit in these power imbalances, including Faith Kates, co-founder of Next Model Management, whom she said introduced her to Epstein.
Kates stepped down from the company in November after friendly emails between her and the late pedophile were released by the Department of Justice in 2017, years after he was accused of sex crimes.
“It’s not just the men in these agencies,” she added.
The two women, however, struck a hopeful note that as more allegations come to light, the bariers in fashion may finally break down.
“I believe that we’re in a moment that fog is lifting and we’re looking under the hood and it’s really ugly,” Otis said.
New episodes of The Daily Beast Podcast are released every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday on YouTube, and on other podcast platforms the next morning. Follow our new feed on your favorite podcast platform at beast.pub/dailybeastpod and subscribe on YouTube to watch full episodes.
