Ghislaine Maxwell has routinely been lauded as one of the world’s best connected socialites.

Whip smart, glamorous and charming, she spent years trading on her impeccable contacts, often photographed with politicians, entrepreneurs and royalty.

Yet those wealthy and powerful associates are now likely to be hard to find, quick to downplay their links with a woman embroiled in one of the biggest sex scandals of a generation.

Far from taking the pressure off Miss Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s death is expected to shine an ever brighter spotlight on the woman who had long been a fixture at his side.

Oxford-educated, a qualified helicopter pilot and fluent in several languages, it is easy to see why the great and the good were drawn to the daughter of disgraced media mogul Robert Maxwell.

The youngest of nine siblings, Miss Maxwell is widely acknowledged to have been her father’s favourite; so much so that he named his £15 million yacht after her.