NYM Profiles Peggy Siegal as 'The Grande Dame of the Epstein Files' - O'Dwyer's

| Peggy Siegal |

New York Magazine has profiled Peggy Siegal, who was once among the most powerful publicists in the Big Apple, in its March 9-22 issue.

Headlined “The Grand Dame of the Epstein Files,” NYM reports there are more than 5,000 emails between Siegal and Jeffrey Epstein in the files released by the Justice Department.

Siegel specialized in bringing together charming, influential people from disparate social worlds and especially the cultured classes of New York and Los Angeles.

Once known for "her brash, bull-dozing style as she was for her 'golden rolodex'—-a catalogue of more than 30,000 VIPs organized by industry and importance, how many homes they owned, and whether they were voting members of the Academy," noted the magaine.

Siegal said Epstein wanted to know everything about Hollywood and New York parties. “She was already in the habit of sending—to a vast list of friends and acquaintances—lengthy, dishy dispatches (her diaries, as she called them) detailing and assessing social scenes,” wrote Jessica Bennett and Katie Ryder.

As she traveled around the city and the world, "Siegel sent Epstein private missives of a similar style, providing him with precise knowledge of enclaves she knew far more intimately than he did.”

She ushered Epstein into screenings and events and hosted a dinner at his Upper East Side mansion with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor—then Prince Andrew—as the guest of honor.

“Siegal’s career and position in high society were destroyed in 2019, after it was reported that she’d been among, in the words of the New York Times, the ‘social guarantors’ who greased Epstein’s return to elite circles after his first stint in jail,” wrote Bennett and Ryder.

Siegal says she paid a serious price for her relationship with Epstein. She told NYM: “No one would let me in their screening. I had to buy a pass for $5,000 to go see a movie. No one would talk to me—they would walk across the street to avoid me.”

Unable to earn a living, Siegal had to sell her two-bedroom apartment on E. 74 St. that was once the home of the father of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

Siegal said Epstein never spoke to her about having sex with underage girls. Even though she read about his activities in media, she couldn't believe it.

She lamented: “Why does Peggy Siegal, who is 78 years old, who did nothing her entire life but work as a single woman, and make a success as a result, have to suffer so badly for this story when heads of state and royalty have done far worse than I have.”