The late Queen Elizabeth II has been drawn into the widening fallout from the release of thousands of documents linked to Jeffrey Epstein, after a Nobel Prize-winning physicist was quoted in newly highlighted material saying he believed the disgraced financier’s “clients include the Queen of England” and that Epstein had “given the Queen financial advice.”
The claims emerge from material associated with the Epstein estate that was turned over to the United States House Oversight Committee and recently made public as part of a large batch of correspondence and files. British media reports, including coverage by the Daily Express and the Daily Star, say one of roughly 23,000 documents contains comments attributed to Murray Gell-Mann, the American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in 1969. In that material, Gell-Mann is recorded as saying he was “under the impression that Epstein’s clients include the Queen of England” and that he “understood that Epstein had given the Queen financial advice.”
The suggestion that Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died in a New York jail in 2019, might have had a professional relationship with the British monarch is presented in the documents as Gell-Mann’s understanding rather than as a formal list of clients or a verified record of financial arrangements. There is no indication in the released material of any direct communication between Epstein and the Queen, nor any documentary evidence such as contracts, payment instructions or palace correspondence that would normally accompany a formal advisory role. The newly public references instead centre on how Gell-Mann and others in Epstein’s circle perceived his standing among the wealthy and powerful.
The wording about Epstein’s “clients” dates back at least two decades. In a 2003 profile of Epstein for Vanity Fair, Gell-Mann was quoted as saying he was under the impression that Epstein’s clients included the Queen of England, in a passage describing Epstein’s social and financial connections to billionaires and prominent figures. That earlier article, written long before Epstein’s 2019 arrest on federal sex trafficking charges, portrayed Gell-Mann as one of several scientists who benefitted from Epstein’s donations and who spoke admiringly of his enthusiasm for theoretical physics and his ability to attract influential people.