A newly surfaced photo from the Jeffrey Epstein files appears to show Professor Stephen Hawking relaxing alongside two women in bikinis.
The renowned British astrophysicist and cosmologist, who passed away in 2018 at age 76, is seen smiling in the image, which was released among millions of Epstein-related documents published this month by the United States Department of Justice. No information is provided about when or where the photo was taken, though many images released with it are believed to originate from Epstein’s private island, Little Saint James.
Hawking is already known to have visited Epstein’s island in March 2006 as part of a group of 21 prominent scientists attending a five-day physics conference focused on gravity.
Stephen Hawking appears in photographs included in the latest release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
At the time of the visit, Epstein had not yet been charged with any sex-related crimes. Images that emerged in 2015 showed the famed physicist attending a barbecue in his wheelchair, and he was later given a submarine tour of the waters surrounding Epstein’s island. The financier reportedly had the vessel specially adapted for Hawking, who had never previously gone underwater.
The Cambridge professor is mentioned at least 250 times in the Epstein files. However, being named in the documents does not constitute an allegation of misconduct, and Dr. Hawking has never been charged with any offense.
Stephen Hawking passed away in 2018.
His name appears in a 2015 email sent by Jeffrey Epstein to his associate Ghislaine Maxwell. In the message, Epstein suggested offering a monetary reward to any friends or relatives of Virginia Giuffre who could provide information to refute claims that Hawking had taken part in an alleged “underage orgy” in the Virgin Islands.
In the email, he wrote that a reward could be offered to individuals close to Virginia who were willing to come forward and help demonstrate that her accusations were untrue. He referenced what he described as the most significant allegations, including a dinner involving Clinton and a separate claim that Stephen Hawking had participated in sexual activities involving minors in the Virgin Islands.
Stephen Hawking was taken on an underwater tour around Jeffrey Epstein’s island in a submarine that had been specially adapted.
Virginia Giuffre, who became widely known for accusing Prince Andrew of sexual abuse and died last year, never directly alleged any misconduct by Hawking. The claim appeared only in Epstein’s unsealed emails. At 21, Hawking was diagnosed with a rare early-onset form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Although doctors initially gave him just two years to live, he survived for more than five decades with the illness, using an advanced speech-generating computer system to communicate his groundbreaking ideas about space, astrophysics, and gravity.
Hawking was not the only academic linked to Epstein. The financier had longstanding connections with prominent scholars, largely men, and in 2002 provided a $100,000 research grant to late AI pioneer Marvin Minsky. Mathematician and geneticist Eric Lander also met with Epstein, and released documents include exchanges between him and Harvard physicist Lisa Randall, who once traveled on Epstein’s private jet. Neither scholar has faced accusations of wrongdoing.