Former "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" star Yolanda Hadid is hitting back at speculation that she let Ghislaine Maxwell hide out at her family's Pennsylvania farmhouse last year.
Ghislaine — a longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein — has been accused of grooming minor girls for sex with the late financier at one of his many homes. In July 2019, he was arrested on sex trafficking charges and later hanged himself in jail. After his death, Ghislaine went into hiding.
Yolanda became linked to the story after Dutch journalist Henk Van Ess claimed that the former reality TV star housed Ghislaine for a while. According to the New York Post, he claimed in since-deleted tweets that Ghislaine was tracked through her computer's IP address.
The journalist alleged that Ghislaine visited a doughnut shop in the vicinity of the Hadid family farmhouse in New Hope, Pennsylvania, and contended that Ghislaine is "friendly with the Hadid family." He said Ghislaine "probably" stayed in the farmhouse. He also implied that Ghislaine may have hidden in Beverly Hills, where Yolanda also has a home.
Yolanda, however, has refuted the claims.
"I do not know or have ever associated with Ghislane- the first time I have heard about her or any of this was watching the documentary, like the rest of the world, on Netflix — which became an in depth dinner conversation with my family in which we all discussed how it's possible that this woman was not already in jail ..?! I have been strictly quarantined with my family, as my daughter is pregnant and is at high risk for catching the virus," Yolanda tweeted, referring to daughter Gigi Hadid's pregnancy. She added that she learned via the press that Ghislane was "arrested in New Hampshire, which is multiple states away from where I live."
Yolanda also accused the journalist of failing to contact her for comment.
"So, I'm not sure how I have been brought into this narrative of yours, but I take these false claims very seriously," Yolanda wrote. "Please stop involving me. What that lady did is disturbing and she deserves to be in jail for a long time."
Ghislaine was arrested last week on sex abuse charges.