On July 22, 2009, Peggy Segal, one of New York’s cultural masterminds, welcomed Jeffrey Epstein from prison.
“What was it like falling asleep in 100% Egyptian cotton again? How long was your first freedom shower exactly? What did you have for breakfast? Caviar, smoked salmon, eggs Benedict?” she asked.
Segal was “working” in Saint-Tropez and wore stripes to celebrate Epstein’s release. Segal will be tasked with reintegrating Epstein into society during the last 10 years of his life, after he served 13 months in prison for child prostitution. She mostly worked in studios and threw lavish parties for Oscar-bound films. But Epstein was also an important client, funding her trip to Cannes.
“You never know what the reaction will be when you rejoin society,” she wrote him a year later. “But slow down and be quiet. Your friends will be there for you…and at least the house is gorgeous as hell.”
Segal took on the challenge in his usual confident manner. She suggested that Epstein use his seven-story Upper East Side mansion to host intimate dinner parties (“but not too small, because the house is too big”) and “get the top political and military figures to speak.” Salons were her hobby. The studio hired Segal for her Rolodex. She used to arrange club-style luncheons and receptions at the Four Seasons, La Grenouille, and other popular spots, filling rooms with movie stars, Oscar voters, and thought leaders and artists ranging from Julian Schnabel to Charlie Rose to Gay Talese.
In December 2010, Segal arranged one such event for Epstein, helping create the guest list for a dinner with Epstein’s friend Prince Andrew that included Rose, Woody Allen and his wife Soon-Yi Previn, George Stephanopoulos, and Katie Couric. And over the next few years, Segal was instrumental in dictating Epstein’s social calendar while he was in New York, inviting him to a succession of screenings and events. Their relationship was chatty and catty, at times warm and affectionate, at times transactional, at least as evidenced by the extensive correspondence documented in files released by the Justice Department. Some of the emails included a bizarre request for Segal to arrange for Anne Hathaway to have coffee with Epstein and Bill Gates. Other articles included an exchange about the kind of private jet Epstein took to convince Hathaway, Hugh Jackman and Jessica Chastain to accompany him to the 2013 Oscars. “It’s fair to say it’s the largest and most luxurious private plane,” Segal wrote. (Neither the coffee nor the private flight took place.)
Segal also sympathized with Epstein when dealing with the media, advising him on how to respond to articles in The Daily Beast and Newsweek about his previous convictions. In one message in March 2011, she asked Epstein how she could “neutralize” Tina Brown, the editor of both publications, and later vented about Brown’s “anger at punishing you.” A week later, Ms. Segal urgently contacted Mr. Epstein and warned him that the press was “talking about you” during a panel discussion she was attending hosted by Mr. Brown.
Epstein coached Segal on how to handle the Daily Beast’s reintegration profile, suggesting that he should say, “I want to say that not only I, but many other people who know him, think he’s excellent.” This line was attributed to Segal almost verbatim in the story.
A few weeks later, she issued a similar statement to writer Jesse Kornbluth, who was writing an article for the Times, saying that although Epstein was not among the five richest people in New York, “there is broad consensus that he is one of the smartest people.” (While she was polite to Kornbluth, she slammed Epstein, saying he “wouldn’t make a dime” and was an “angry loser.”)
She explained to Kornbluth that Epstein “paid a heavy price” for his crimes.
“Quaker-inspired methods of avoidance and shame were replaced hundreds of years ago by more compassionate practices of forgiveness,” she wrote. “His friends asked him for it and he took it.”
In a statement to Variety, Segal said she went to Epstein’s house twice “socially” for a Prince Andrew event and a Yom Kippur dinner. She also said she knew nothing about “underage girls” and that when she read the 2011 article documenting the child prostitution allegations, she “couldn’t understand” that it was true. Segal insists the media attention she receives is unfair.
“As a working woman, considered a ‘low-hanging fruit’ due to the scandals of the past decade, it is tragic that I am once again humiliated in the media and ostracized by my friends,” Segal said. “Six years is a lifetime of constant apologies. It’s time to focus on the bad guys.”
Segal benefited financially from his relationship with Epstein. She said their relationship began about 20 years ago, when he gave her a “Cartier travel watch.” In addition to accepting “unsolicited” gifts, Segal also billed lenders for unspecified work, including charging them $50,000 for five months of service in 2011. In 2010, Segal sent $37,600 for a trip to Cannes, which included $13,700 for a hotel, $12,000 for a car, and $7,000 for airfare. Epstein gave Segal $30,000 as a birthday present in July 2018. There were also bills for airline tickets and other travel expenses, some of which Epstein refused to pay. At one point, Ms. Segal turned to Mr. Epstein for advice on everything from disputes over her inheritance to organizing her personal finances to dealing with rivals in her advertising business. “Instead of calling in a panic about this nasty fag who has been trying to steal my business for two years,” Segal wrote to Epstein in 2009. “I’m thinking of ways to compete with him (though it’s not impossible) other than to try harder and do a great job and be very nice to people.”
The two were so close that Epstein asked her to find a woman to bear his child.
Segal, who was 64 at the time, joked, “If I wasn’t 102 years old, I would have gotten that job in a matter of seconds.”
“I need great genes, smart, cute, funny genes,” Epstein wrote. “If you were 50 years younger, whoa…40 years old.”
Segal promised to find a “European intellectual,” perhaps a full-time student. “This is not the path for anyone who wants to be a socialite,” she wrote. “Look and see.”
In 2017, the elite world Segal moved to was rocked by the #MeToo movement, which toppled powerful figures like Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer, and Rose, who were staples of New York society. Epstein didn’t live long. He died in prison less than two years later, and Segal was forced to close her business because of her relationship with him. But for now, the risks felt remote. In fact, compared to others, Epstein wrote, “Jeffrey is getting better and better.”
“I know!!!” she replied. “The world is in a dizzying mess. What has been going on since time immemorial (and that’s not an excuse) has suddenly emerged as a new code of moral behavior in our modern age of global information overload.”
A more pressing concern that fall was whether Epstein would make sure to attend the Gotham Awards, one of New York’s premier film events, to which he had donated $10,000.
“Every year I ask them to come, but every year they don’t,” she wrote. “This year we will sit together.”
Her plea worked. “I’ll be there too,” Epstein wrote, later admitting he was bringing “two girls.”
