Fifteen years after enduring abuse by Jeffrey Epstein, South African survivor Juliette Bryant continues to battle severe psychological aftershocks, living in survival mode amid fears and distrust. Her story highlights the enduring impact of Epstein's sexual abuse network on victims long after legal proceedings. Despite some compensation, transparency delays perpetuate a sense of betrayal.
Juliette Bryant, a South African psychology student and aspiring model, first encountered Jeffrey Epstein on 26 September 2002 in Cape Town. Approached at a nightspot by a woman promising a meeting with the owner of Victoria’s Secret, she was introduced to Epstein, who posed as a modeling scout for Les Wexner, alongside Bill Clinton, Kevin Spacey, and Chris Tucker at a trendy eatery. The next day, she presented her portfolio at the Cape Grace Hotel and accompanied Clinton to the University of the Western Cape.
Two weeks later, Bryant flew to New York on a ticket paid by Epstein’s staff, her first overseas trip. Epstein had reassured her mother, Virginia, over a 30-minute phone call about her welfare. From Teterboro Airport, she was taken directly to a private plane bound for the Caribbean without customs, her name omitted from the manifest. As the door closed, Epstein began his sexual assault. “I suddenly realised, oh my God, I’ve been lied to. These people are going to try to kill me. I’ll never see my family again. I had to do whatever they wanted,” Bryant recalls. The recruiters, identified as Sarah Kellen and Lesley Groff, laughed, revealing the modeling ruse.
Her ordeal lasted intermittently from 2002 to 2004, involving flights to Epstein’s properties in New York, Little Saint James, Palm Beach, Paris, and New Mexico’s Zorro Ranch. There, amid surveillance and fear, she has fragmented memories of a pelvic examination and waking in a laboratory, believing Epstein harvested her eggs for cloning experiments tied to his transhumanism obsessions. “Epstein was demonic. He fed off the terror,” she says. He claimed to be a CIA agent, threatening her family’s safety to ensure compliance.
Bryant kept the abuse secret for 15 years, suffering panic attacks, eating disorders, and self-punishment. “I was carrying this shameful secret and pretending I was okay. My time with Epstein killed my true self,” she explains. Even after his 2019 arrest, Epstein contacted her requesting naked images before his death in custody.
In 2022, she submitted a victim impact statement for Ghislaine Maxwell’s sentencing: “Simply put, Ghislaine Maxwell is a monster. Ever since she and Jeffrey Epstein got their hands on me, I have never felt okay. ... I appreciate Your Honor imposing the maximum sentence available.” She received substantial compensation from Epstein’s estate, totaling about $121 million for 150 claimants, and from a 2023 class action against JPMorgan Chase.
Therapist Riaan van Wyk notes survivors experience trauma bonding, with anger, guilt, and distrust persisting. Bryant rejects rewards in her case: “There were no rewards from Epstein. Only pain and fear.” Suspicious deaths of associates and survivors, including Virginia Giuffre’s 2025 suicide, heighten her reclusiveness.
Optimism faded with the November 2025 Epstein Transparency Act, signed by President Donald Trump, due to delays and sealed documents. “We thought we’d finally get answers. ... We can’t trust anyone,” Bryant says. Now a mother, she seeks autonomy: “I am determined not to allow myself to be controlled by him. ... Now I want to live my life.”
Her endurance underscores the invisible bonds of trauma, where legal wins fail to erase memory’s violence.
