AS the world reels from the ongoing release of Jeffrey Epstein’s bombshell files, one British socialite has emerged as a link in his “procurement” of young girls.
Her name was Annabelle Neilson and – with close friendships with the likes of Kate Moss, Alexander McQueen and Naomi Campbell – she had access to the most exclusive rooms among the fashion jet-set.
Already a legendary “It girl” on the London social scene, Annabelle – who died in 2018 from a heart attack – has, until now, not been publicly associated with Epstein.
But, according to the latest release of jaw-dropping emails, she was seemingly connected to him by his sex-trafficking co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell in 2010.
Over the next two years, Annabelle seems she continually kept in touch with the convicted paedophile, offering to procure girls for him and even telling him that she was only looking for women who weren’t “past their sell-by-date”.
Annabelle, who was once married to Nat Rothschild, now the fifth Baron Rothschild and heir to a £500million banking fortune, was already a major player on the London social scene when she was approached.
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Initially Maxwell, who jealously guarded her own relationship with Epstein, warned him not to trust the socialite, with an 2010 email stating he should “be careful” of her.
But Epstein replied, asking Maxwell to “reach out” to her.
Two days later, he received an email from a woman who signed off as “Annabelle”, telling him: “So I am putting a little group of girls together.
“Hopefully one of them will have all the right qualities you desire. Wish I was 20 years younger and could speak French!!!”
She added: “I have to say that a few of my girls, who would be perfect for the job but are unfortunately past their sell by date, would of [sic] all dropped their husband and almost children for the job when I asked them.
“You know I’ve just had a spark of genius while writing this, I think I may have the right girl.”
Later that month, it’s clear she found herself in Epstein’s good books, as he wrote to her: “A sincere thanks for all your help today..I really appreciate the effort.”
She responded: “Sincere thank you for being a good friend, it was fun to have something to find you, that you really needed!!”
Also in 2010, “Annabelle” reached out again, writing: “Hi Jeffrey How are you and all the girls?! I hope you got the numbers I left you for the Brazilian and the Italian presenter. I’m back in my lovely grey old rainy London.
“My love I hope you are still having a wonderful time without me, probably the new arrivals would of distracted you from the huge void that I left…”
She also allegedly arranged a meeting with Lady Alexandra Spencer- Churchill and other women, for a PA position, before Epstein emailed: “Any thing cute for after?”
Annabelle replied: “Cute as in cuddle toy? or cute as in badly behaved English girls.”
She added: “There is a little thing for my very young friend who is lunching (sic) her bikini range at Morton’s but that might just drive you made!!! (sic) I have a friend I might call.
“The problem with English girls is they do seem to go a bit made (sic) but not in the right way, if you no what I mean.”
There is no suggestion that any of the ‘girls’ were minors or that any of her celebrity friends knew of her connection to Jeffrey Epstein.
Although the Annabelle in question never left her surname, it’s clear she’s the same person who rubbed shoulders with royalty and socialites in the 1990s and 2000s – not least because Epstein had specifically asked Ghislaine to reach out to Annabelle Neilson.
What’s more, she voiced her grief over the death of designer Alexander McQueen – real name Lee – in another email to Epstein in 2010.
Following McQueen’s suicide, she wrote: “Dear Jeffrey, How are you darling? As you probably know I have been having a bit of a bad time.
“My best friend-brother Lee McQueen died a week ago and I have not been able to think much on the work front.”
‘It girl’
Annabelle and Alexander McQueen were as thick as thieves before his tragic suicide. They met when she was just 22 – after being introduced by late Tatler fashion editor Isabella Blow – and she quickly became his muse.
Known to friends on the London social scene as Mrs McQueen – though he called her “Tinkerbell” – Annabelle helped the then up-and-coming designer find his footing among her VIP friends.
She later remembered “running around” banks with her credit card hours before his shows “siphoning out cash otherwise, literally, the show would not go on”, adding: “For want of a better word, it was like we were married – without the sex.
“The only difference being I didn’t get in a grump when he bought a boy back and shagged him.”
Already by the time they became firm friends, Annabelle had lived a shocking life in the fast lane.
Born into a wealthy, aristocratic family in London in 1969, her grandmother was the second cousin of the late Queen Mother and her first cousin was the Earl of Warwick.
She attended private school in Kent, where she was known for breaking the rules, before leaving at 16 with no qualifications to go on a gap year to Perth, Australia with her cousin, Guy Greville, 9th Earl of Warwick.
However, her year away turned to tragedy after she was assaulted by a man who was later convicted of killing three people.
The socialite later remembered: “The attack lasted for two hours. I was tied to a tree and continually beaten.
Heroin saved me because otherwise I would have killed myself
Late socialite Annabelle Neilson
“I managed to escape with my life but I needed reconstructive surgery because my face was so disfigured.
“After that I fell into a serious depression and became a heroin addict because it provided an escape bubble and was the only way I could cope.”
Reflecting on her teenage heroin addiction, she added: “In a way, heroin saved me because otherwise I would have killed myself.”
Annabelle later managed to quit the deadly drug and met Nat Rothschild on a beach in Bali when she was still in her late teens.
They married four years later, during which time she bore the courtesy title The Honourable Mrs. Rothschild.
A family friend later reflected on the marriage, revealing his parents never approved.
“The girl’s party trick was to climb on to the dining table in her tiny dress and stilettos and dance amid the crystal and silver,” the insider said.
“Rather vulgar, I’m afraid. Nat’s parents predicted it would end in tears, and it did.”
They later separated in 1997 and finalised their divorce a year later, with Annabelle receiving a substantial out-of-court settlement after signing a non-disclosure agreement and agreeing to revert to her maiden name.
In 2007, she told Tatler: “You don’t fall in love with a title. You fall in love with a person. And that’s all I’m saying. I’ve never talked about Nat and he’s never talked about me. We made an agreement and we’ve stuck to it. I don’t intend to break that promise now.”
By her early 20s – around the time she met McQueen – she was already making a name for herself as a fashion model.
Party girl
She walked in shows for McQueen and John Galliano, and even famously appeared naked and simulating sex with a male model for a McQueen fashion ad.
She also became friends with the likes of Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss, whom – Annabelle later said – she loved “like a sister”.
When Kate’s daughter Lila was born in 2002, Annabelle was named as her godmother.
In 2000, she and Kate acted as co-bridesmaids when McQueen “married” his partner George Forsyth in Ibiza – in a new-age ceremony that took place before gay marriage was legal.
Guests, including members of the infamous Primrose Hill set like Sadie Frost, Meg Matthews and Patsy Kensit, reportedly drank £20,000 of Champagne, with Annabelle leading the wild and raucous party.
In 2014, Annabelle found further fame as an original main cast member in the US reality TV series Ladies of London – a spin-off of Bravo’s popular Real Housewives franchise.
The show followed her and fellow London socialites including Caprice Bourret and Caroline Stanbury as they hobnobbed around the capital.
In the show’s second series, fans watched as she recovered from a bad horse riding accident, which saw her break her pelvis.
Then, after two years on the show, Annabelle departed – using her exposure to launch a career as a children’s author. She wrote a series called Me Me Me, including titles Angry Me and Messy Me, which she hoped would be as popular as the Mr Men books.
However, they failed to sell and the socialite is believed to have subsequently struggled with depression.
Untimely death
In 2018, she was pictured mixing with London’s glitterati at Blenheim Palace for the wedding of one of her exes, Lord Edward Spencer-Churchill.
However, just six days later, tragedy struck when she was found dead at her home in Chelsea at the age of 49.
Police later said her death was “not being treated as suspicious”, while her family later announced she’d died of a heart attack.
Following the news, Kate Moss shared a picture of the pair hugging, with a red heart broken in two, while Alexander McQueen’s fashion house shared lines from the Edgar Allan Poe poem Annabel Lee.
High society members and celebrities including Kate, Orlando Bloom and Liv Tyler attended her funeral at St Paul’s Church in Knightsbridge.
Epstein was not present, but – in the latest batch of revealed documents – he acknowledged her untimely death, forwarding a news article about it to an unknown individual.
The unnamed recipient responded: “That’s horrible!! Do you think drugs? She was so full of life and energy.”
Since her death, Annabelle’s reputation among London’s jet-set has lived on, with her words: “I’d prefer to be infamous rather than famous” summing up her wild and raucous lifestyle.
However, her association with Jeffrey Epstein – and her apparent aiding in his nefarious world of sex trafficking and paedophilia – has now cast a dark cloud over her memory.
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