When Clare Hazell, a sophisticated interior designer, wed Arthur Edward Guinness, the Earl of Iveagh and leader of the iconic brewing family, she not only became the lady of one of England’s most prestigious country homes but also joined the elite circle of British aristocracy.

This extraordinary rise was quite the journey for the demure 27-year-old from Reading, who initially explored a career in modeling before pursuing philosophy in a little-known university in the American Midwest.

However, the newly titled Countess of Iveagh was concealing a troubling secret.

An extensive investigation by The Mail on Sunday has uncovered that prior to marrying ‘Ned’ Guinness, the Countess was intricately involved in the inner workings of convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. She reportedly flew on his notorious private jet, the ‘Lolita Express,’ as many as 40 times over four years.

Recently discovered documents from the Epstein Files, which are currently being examined by the US Congress, show that in June 2020, the UK’s National Crime Agency alerted the FBI about the Countess’s alleged close ties to Epstein. A woman, whose identity remains undisclosed, has claimed she was sexually abused by her.

This newspaper understands that the Countess’s accuser was Virginia Giuffre, the woman who alleged she was sex trafficked to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on three separate occasions, including once when she was under-age – accusations the former prince has always denied.

It must be noted, too, that there is no proof that Ms Giuffre’s allegation against the Countess is true, as it has not been investigated by the police nor tested in court.

Nor will it be, as both women have since died. Ms Giuffre took her own life in April last year, while the Countess died two days before Christmas aged 51.

Clare Hazell (pictured in June 2003), the Countess of Iveagh and wife of the head of famous brewing family Guinness, has been guarding a dark secret

The Mail on Sunday can reveal the wife of the Earl of Iveagh flew on Jeffrey Epstein’s Lolita Express 40 times in four years. Pictured: Epstein standing in front his Gulfstream G2B

She was eulogised at a private funeral at the picturesque Church of St Andrew and St Patrick at Elveden, the 23,000-acre Guinness estate on the Norfolk-Suffolk border, where generations of Guinness family members have been laid to rest. The Countess’s two sons aged 23 and 21 – the eldest being heir to his father’s £900million fortune and title – led mourners in celebrating the life of their mother who lost a ‘cruel’ battle against brain cancer.

Last night, a source told the MoS: ‘While she was alive, and particularly while she was so sick, people didn’t want to talk about the dark cloud hanging over Clare. She was universally loved by those closest to her. She led an exemplary life as a Countess but few knew about her time with Epstein and, if they did, they never talked about it.’

While the former Duke of York’s involvement with Epstein has been well chronicled, the story of Clare, Countess of Iveagh’s relationship with the vile paedophile has, until now, remained secret.

Indeed, it is only since her death, that the MoS has been able to piece together fragments of her remarkable rags-to-riches tale.

The newly-discovered documents from the National Crime Agency (NCA) show the Countess’s links to Epstein were under the spotlight in 2020 after flight records showed her accompanying the paedophile on 40 flights to his Caribbean island and his homes in New York, Ohio and New Mexico.

On at least one flight she was joined by the then Prince Andrew. On all but three trips, Epstein was also on board as was, on many occasions, the disgraced socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, the paedophile’s ‘madam’ who is currently serving 20 years in jail having trafficked children for sex.

Maxwell, we have learned, was one of the Countess’s closest friends. But more of that later.

The newspaper understands that Virginia Giuffre (pictured with Prince Andrew and Ghislaine Maxwell) accused the Countess of ‘sexually abusing’ her

An aerial view of Elveden Hall near Thetford UK, which is owned by Lord Iveagh of the Guinness family

Who was Clare Hazell? And how did she end up in Epstein’s warped world then go on to marry into one of Britain’s most illustrious families? It’s a question that baffled Ms Giuffre, who first met the future Countess when she was simply ‘Clare with a cute English accent’.

Ms Giuffre entered Epstein’s orbit shortly before her 17th birthday in 2000 when she was ‘headhunted’ by Maxwell at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate where she was a receptionist in the spa.

Writing on X in 2020, Ms Giuffre accused Hazell of having ‘sexually abused her’ when she was a minor.

In an interview with journalist Daniel Bates in 2021 – published here for the first time – Ms Giuffre said the pair were ‘intimate’ but she also appeared much more sympathetic towards the Countess, portraying her as someone who was not tied to Epstein ‘of her own accord’. She said: ‘I know she wasn’t forced into it, she obviously had a choice like we all did. I don’t think she necessarily wanted to be there. I can’t say anything bad about her.’

The reason for Ms Giuffre’s marked change of tone is not clear. It must, however, be pointed out that if the pair were intimate, Hazell would have been almost a decade older than a teenage Giuffre. Old enough for Giuffre to comment: ‘I didn’t understand Clare’s reasoning for being there. Jeffrey didn’t like older girls but he did with her.’

By Ms Giuffre’s account, Clare Hazell, as she then was, had arrived in America to pursue a modelling career.

It would have been some adventure for Clare, the daughter of Andrea and Derek, a sales manager, who lived in a modest two-bedroom terraced home in a Reading suburb.

But the MoS understands Ms Hazell first met Epstein not in the US but in Britain after which the vile financier invited her to America. It was there she met Maxwell, with the pair becoming friends.

‘It was Epstein who met Clare first,’ a source said. ‘He was living in London in the mid-Eighties and met a lot of British society people and it was through those friends he ended up meeting Clare. She came to New York at his invitation and that was when she met Ghislaine. Ghislaine was very fond of Clare. Everyone loved Clare because she was vibrant and good-hearted.’

There is no proof that Ms Giuffre’s (pictured in 2011) allegation against the Countess is true, as it has never been probed by the police or put to a court

However, now, it never will be, as Ms Giuffre took her own life last year and the Countess (pictured in 2002) died just two days before Christmas

By then Maxwell had fallen ‘madly in love’ with Epstein, then a financial adviser to Ohio-based billionaire Les Wexner, owner of brands like Victoria’s Secret. ‘Epstein only had one client and that was Les,’ the source says. It is at this stage that things become murky.

Clare appears to have accepted Epstein as her ‘benefactor’. In 1996, she enrolled in Ohio State University – which received millions in donations from Wexner’s charitable foundation – and left with a BA in philosophy three years later. 

One of her university friends claimed Epstein paid for Clare’s tuition fees, accommodation and a monthly allowance. Now a 50-year-old studio engineer, the friend told the MoS that Clare was living in a £1,000-a-month rental apartment near the university – a fortune in Ohio – but would frequently leave to jet around the world with Epstein and Maxwell. 

The university declined to comment on payment arrangements citing privacy laws.

Clare was considered ‘sophisticated’ by other students, not only because of her English accent but also because she appeared more worldly, speaking fluent French. 

The friend says he regularly accompanied Clare to New Albany Country Club, an exclusive club on the grounds of a development created by Wexner. ‘It was definitely intimidating the first time. I was her plus one.

‘She was an extremely intelligent girl… down to earth, she carried herself really well. There was a lot of grace and refinement, just from her British background, that set her apart. Epstein was paying her tuition and that sort of thing. 

It was almost a personal scholarship. She was essentially being paid a living wage, a monthly stipend. I believe she referred to him as her benefactor.’

The Countess’s university friend recalled hanging out at Epstein’s house (‘lots of pillars, marble, extremely plush’) with Clare who would excuse herself when Maxwell called. ‘I don’t remember a time when she ever let [Maxwell’s call] go to voicemail.’

He recalled how his friend would ‘jet off’ to the Bahamas, adding: ‘She never seemed in distress. She would seem upbeat about leaving Ohio for the weekend… I would say that she was playing the game in her own way.’

Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell pictured in New York on March 15, 2005

The late Ms Guffre holding an image of herself, when she says she was abused by the paedophile financier and Maxwell

So was the Countess a victim of Epstein or a compliant participant? The former, claimed a source close to the family last night. While someone who knew her says: ‘Does it matter at this stage? She was a girl who pulled herself up by her bootstraps. She went from Reading to being the Countess of Iveagh. That’s monumental.’

The MoS has been unable to establish exactly what Clare did after leaving university in 1997.

She appears to have worked as a model and then promoted herself as an interior designer. She is believed to have met Ned Guinness – at the time one of Britain’s most eligible bachelors – around 2000. The earl, who was educated at Marlborough College in Wiltshire, is said to have proposed on a mountaintop while on a walking holiday in Spain.

The couple wed ‘quietly’ in October 2001 at the church on the Elveden estate where she was buried last weekend. Vicar Robert Leach says the couple met at a dinner party: ‘Clare was attracted to Edward because he was different. While everyone else in the room was talking about their last holiday or their trip to France, he was talking about his 3,000 tons of potatoes.’

The marriage, for the most part, appears to have been a happy one. Both sons are accomplished sportsmen, representing Ireland in downhill skiing. A source says: ‘They adored their sons. Then the Epstein s*** happened. It’s surprising it’s taken this long for someone to write about it. It’s enormously sad. The stress of this may have contributed to her illness.’

On June 30, 2020, Michael Manley, the NCA liaison officer at the British embassy in Washington, wrote to the FBI raising allegations surrounding the Countess.

In a letter bringing the matter ‘to the attention of the FBI’ Manley wrote that Ms Hazell, then president of the West Suffolk branch of the NSPCC, was facing an internal investigation by the children’s charity to determine whether she remained ‘suitable to hold the position of president’ – most likely as a result of Virginia GIuffre’s allegation on X that she had been ‘sexually abused’ by her.

Manley said the NCA did not ‘hold any derogatory information’ on the Countess but said she was ‘allegedly a close contact’ of Epstein, who took his own life in 2019. Mr Manly said the NCA wanted to know if an internal investigation by the NSPCC would ‘adversely affect’ the FBI and US Department of Justice’s probe into Epstein’s vast network and possible co-conspirators.

His letter sparked a flurry of emails between FBI agents in New York and officials at the agency’s headquarters in Washington DC, according to documents released as part of the Epstein Files. On August 18, 2020, an FBI official informed a colleague that prosecutors in the office of the US attorney for the Southern District of New York did ‘not see an issue with them [the NSPCC] proceeding on an internal investigation into Clare Iveagh’.

The children’s charity last weekend told the MoS that ‘Clare Iveagh stood down from her role with the NSPCC before the charity’s internal process had concluded’.

A year on from her resignation, she and her husband announced their plans to divorce.

A friend says: ‘Did Epstein contribute to the marriage breakdown? Who knows?’

For now, the overwhelming sense of those who knew Clare Hazell is one of sadness. ‘She was a lovely lady. So pretty, so bubbly, so kind,’ says one person who spoke to the Countess when she learned her skin cancer had progressed to her brain and would be life-ending.

‘Once she was linked with Epstein it changed her character.

‘Her feeling towards the end was one of defensiveness. She wanted to protect her boys.

‘Did she do a deal with the devil when she was younger? Maybe. Does she deserve to have her legacy ripped away? No. She knew everyone but remained loyal to her friends, including Ghislaine.’

The extraordinary story of her association with Epstein follows the Netflix drama House Of Guinness, whose London premiere in September Ned attended. The show depicts how the four children of Sir Benjamin Guinness fight for their share of his 19th Century empire.

The lives of subsequent generations of the family have often been described as ‘cursed’ after a succession of calamities, including the assassination of Anglo-Irish politician Walter, Lord Moyne, in Egypt in 1944; socialite Tara Browne’s death in 1966 in a car crash and the suicide of Henrietta Guinness in 1978.

To those loyal to the Countess, it seems the ‘curse’ has claimed its latest victim. But for those abused by Jeffrey Epstein, her premature death leaves many questions unanswered.

Additional reporting: Daniel Bates