Featured Image Credit: Department of Justice
Topics: Jeffrey Epstein, News, World News
Niamh Shackleton
Topics: Jeffrey Epstein, News, World News
Stephen Hawking's estate has spoken out about a photograph that's been made public of him alongside two bikini-clad women.
3,000,000 pages of documents relating to Jeffrey Epstein were released by the Department of Justice at the end of January, where hundreds of famous people were mentioned.
From Whoopi Goldberg and Elon Musk to Zayn Malik and Emma Thompson, dozens of well-known names were in the files.
Another person mentioned was Stephen Hawking, who passed away in 2018 from complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) at the age of 76.
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Hawking's name is reportedly mentioned 250 times in the documents, as well as there being photographs of him. It is important to note that being mentioned in the files doesn't indicate any wrongdoing.
In one snap, the late academic is seen with two women wearing bikinis as they hold up brightly-colored cocktails.
It was initially unclear when or where the photo was taken, but Hawking was known to have visited a conference hosted by Epstein in 2006 in the months prior to the disgraced financier being charged with soliciting prostitution from a minor.
In the wake of the photo's release, Hawking's family issued a statement identifying the two women in the picture with him.
They told The Mirror: "Professor Hawking made some of the greatest contributions to physics in the 20th century while at the same time being the longest-known survivor of motor neurone disease, a debilitating condition which left him reliant on a ventilator, voice synthesiser, wheelchair and round-the-clock medical care.
"Any insinuation of inappropriate conduct on his part is wrong and far-fetched in the extreme."
They went on to clarify that the two women in the photo are believed to have been his long-term carers.
According to the news outlet, the snap in question was taken at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in the US Virgin Islands in 2006, where rooms were known to cost as much as $1,600 a night, The Times reports.
That year, Hawking had been invited to Epstein's conference on his Little St James island and the nearby St Thomas, alongside 20 other scientists, for the 'Energy of Empty Space That Isn’t Zero' event, which the disgraced financier funded.
According to a blog post from around that time, the meeting's topic was 'Confronting Gravity', where 'people would look forward to the key issues facing fundamental physics and cosmology'.
It continues: "They could meet, discuss, relax on the beach, and take a trip to the nearby private island retreat of the science philanthropist Jeffrey Epstein, who funded the event."
Meanwhile, The New York Times reported in 2019 that it was a 'five-day gathering' where 'ideas about gravity and cosmology' were shared, with the participants having dinner on Epstein's private island.
Another picture shows Hawking in a submarine, with The Independent reporting that Epstein had supposedly modified it to allow Hawking access.
Nobel laureates, Gerard 't Hooft, David Gross, and Frank Wilczek, as well as cosmologists and physicists, including Jim Peebles, Alan Guth, Kip Thorne, and Lisa Randall, were also in attendance.
Elsewhere in the files, there's an email to Ghislaine Maxwell from Epstein where he suggested a financial incentive to anyone who could disprove an allegation against Hawking — the allegation being that the late scientist had been part of an 'underage orgy'.
Virginia Guiffre is believed to have made the claim about him.