Stephen Hawking pictured in Epstein files - The Times

Stephen Hawking has been pictured in the Epstein files with two women said to have been his carers.

The photo of the late British physicist has circulated online after it was featured in the latest tranche of documents released as part of the United States Department of Justice’s (DoJ) investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.

The women in the photo were Hawking’s long-term carers from the UK, a spokesman for his family said.

Hawking died in 2018, aged 76, having lived with motor neurone disease, which left him disabled for more than 50 years.

His family said that the photo was taken during a 2006 science symposium at the five-star Ritz-Carlton Hotel, St Thomas, where Hawking gave a speech on quantum cosmology. The conference was five months before the financier was charged with soliciting prostitution from a minor.

Hawking was among 21 scientists who visited St Thomas in the Virgin Islands and Epstein’s island, Little Saint James, as part of the “Energy of Empty Space That Isn’t Zero” event.

A blog post from the Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation stated that guests met to “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”.

Guests at the conference appear to have split their time between St Thomas and Little Saint James, where Epstein personally hosted them.

Hawking has previously been featured in two pictures connected with the Epstein estate. One photo that surfaced in 2015 showed him outdoors with several other diners. Another showed him enjoying a submarine tour of the Little Saint James seabed. Epstein was reported to have modified the vehicle so that Hawking, who used a wheelchair, could access it.

Hawking is referenced at least 250 times in the tranche of more than 3.5 million documents but has never been pictured with the convicted sex offender. Inclusion in the files relating to Epstein is not necessarily evidence of wrongdoing.

In January, emails from the Epstein estate released by the DoJ included unsubstantiated allegations that Hawking had been accused of “participating in an underage orgy” by Virginia Giuffre.

The email, written by Epstein, said: “You can issue a reward to any of Virginia’s friends, acquaintances, or family who come forward and help prove her allegations are false. The strongest is the Clinton dinner, and the new version in the Virgin Islands that Stephen Hawking participated in an underage orgy.”

Hawking separated from his second wife Elaine Mason in 2006. He was previously married to Jane Hawking for 30 years until 1995. The couple had three children.

Giuffre, who died by suicide in April 2025, aged 41, claimed she was trafficked by Epstein and accused Prince Andrew of sexually abusing her. The case was settled out of court after the former prince agreed to pay Giuffre £12 million. Prince Andrew has always denied any wrongdoing in connection to Epstein.

• Virginia Giuffre’s family respond to Andrew arrest: ‘A stain on the royals’

Federal Bureau of Investigation officials also received an unproven tip-off alleging that Epstein and Hawking attended an “all-male gay club” in 2011, according to files released by the DoJ.

Epstein often styled himself as a scientific philanthropist, attempting to cultivate relationships with Stephen Jay Gould, the palaeontologist and evolutionary biologist, Oliver Sacks, the neurologist, George M Church, the bestselling author, and Frank Wilczek, the theoretical physicist, according to The New York Times.

Harvard University said that a review of its connections with the convicted paedophile found that he had donated $9.1 million in gifts to the institution between 1998 and 2008, all before his conviction.