First published October 23, 2021.
In October 2021 a documentary podcast called Fallen Angel set out to tell the inside story of Victoria's Secret, and one of its central threads was the long relationship between the brand's billionaire boss, Les Wexner, and the financier Jeffrey Epstein. Hosted by journalists Vanessa Grigoriadis and Justine Harman, it drew on former employees and models to describe how close Epstein was to Wexner and how he reportedly used the Victoria's Secret name to approach young women.
Here is what the podcast explored, what the public record confirms about Wexner and Epstein, and where the facts stand today, including the official findings on Epstein's death.
The podcast and the people behind it
Fallen Angel was made by Campside Media in partnership with C13Originals, a studio of Cadence13. Grigoriadis, a co-founder of Campside and a long-time magazine writer, co-hosted with Harman, a former features director at Glamour. The series looked at how Victoria's Secret shaped ideas of sex, desire and beauty for almost four decades, and at the culture inside the company under Wexner.
It arrived at a turning point for the brand. Wexner had stepped down as chief executive of L Brands in early 2020, and Victoria's Secret was being reshaped after years of criticism over its image and its famous runway show.
Speaking to the New York Post about the series, Grigoriadis described the two men's relationship as "deep." She also noted that many people believe much of Epstein's wealth originated with Wexner. That is a belief held by many observers rather than an established finding, and it should be read that way.
How Wexner and Epstein were connected
Les Wexner built L Brands out of a single clothing store in Columbus, Ohio, and bought Victoria's Secret from its founder, Roy Raymond, in 1982. In 1987 a friend recommended Epstein to him for financial advice. The relationship grew unusually close:
- In July 1991, Wexner gave Epstein power of attorney over his affairs and made him a trustee of the Wexner Foundation.
- Wexner bought a grand Manhattan mansion, the Herbert N. Straus House on East 71st Street, in 1989 for $13.2 million. By the mid-1990s Epstein was living there and claiming it as his own. In 2011, registered ownership moved from a trust connected to both men to one controlled by Epstein.
- In 2019, federal prosecutors valued the house at $77 million, while the city valued it at $56 million. It sold in 2021 for $51 million, with the proceeds intended for the Epstein Victims' Compensation Program.
Wexner has said he cut ties with Epstein in 2007, about 18 months after Epstein was first charged in Florida. In an August 2019 statement, he said Epstein had "misappropriated vast sums of money" from him and his family, and he has said he regrets the association.
Epstein, the "auditions" and Victoria's Secret
One of the most troubling allegations around Epstein is that he presented himself as a recruiter or scout for Victoria's Secret. Former executives have said he did so, though he never held a formal role there.
The best-documented case dates from 1997, when model Alicia Arden told Santa Monica police that Epstein had groped her during what he presented as an audition for a Victoria's Secret catalogue. The case was closed after she said she did not want to press charges. Prosecutors and journalists later described a wider pattern in which promises of modelling work were used to approach young women and girls.
In the podcast, a former Victoria's Secret executive identified only by her first name, Cindy, recalled how Epstein reached out to her. She said she was invited by him to a party at Wexner's home that she had not heard about from her own boss, and that she declined. She described a later phone call in which Epstein said he was visiting Columbus often and wanted female company, and another invitation to a Wexner gathering in Aspen, which she also turned down. Her account is a personal recollection shared on the podcast.
Harman put the power dynamic inside the company plainly: being seen as someone Wexner trusted, she said, gave a person an "extraordinary amount of power" there.
Epstein's crimes and how his case ended
In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida to state charges of soliciting prostitution, including from a minor. He served 13 months of an 18-month sentence, much of it on work release, and had to register as a sex offender. The lenient deal was later heavily criticised.
On 6 July 2019 he was arrested at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey and charged in New York with federal sex trafficking offences covering 2002 to 2005. On 10 August 2019 he was found dead in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan while awaiting trial, and the charges against him were dropped. His long-time associate Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking in December 2021.
What the official findings say about his death
Epstein's death set off a wave of theories that he had been killed to protect powerful people. The official record does not support them. New York City's chief medical examiner ruled the death a suicide by hanging, and the US Attorney's Office in Manhattan and the Justice Department's inspector general reached the same conclusion.
In July 2025, a memo from the Justice Department and the FBI again concluded it was suicide. It noted that video of the common area outside his unit showed no one entering the tiers between about 10:40 p.m. on 9 August and 6:30 a.m. the next morning. The same review said it found no incriminating client list and no credible evidence that Epstein had blackmailed prominent figures.
Where things stand now
Interest in Wexner's ties to Epstein has not faded. Since 2025, parts of the government's Epstein files have been released, and in early 2026 a House committee subpoenaed Wexner for a deposition. Documents released in 2026 showed the FBI had listed him as a potential co-conspirator in a 2019 email. Wexner denies any involvement in Epstein's crimes, and he has not been charged with any wrongdoing. In April 2026 a group of Epstein survivors sued Wexner and his foundation, alleging he provided Epstein with large sums over two decades. Those are allegations, and they had not been tested in court at the time of writing.
For anyone trying to understand the story, the useful habit is to separate the kinds of evidence: documented property and financial records, survivors' and employees' first-hand accounts, and commentators' interpretations. All three matter, but they are not the same thing.
Sources: Campside Media: Fallen Angel; New York Post (19 October 2021, interview quotes); Wikipedia: Les Wexner; Wikipedia: Jeffrey Epstein; Wikipedia: Herbert N. Straus House; OPB / AP: DOJ memo on Jeffrey Epstein (July 2025).
COMMENTS