Remember me
In the wake of Andrew Mountbatten‑Windsor’s arrest this week on suspicion of misconduct in public office, Late Late Show viewers heard from Jeffrey Epstein survivor Lisa Phillips about her experience of Epstein’s abuse and her ongoing mission to seek justice.
Phillips spoke about meeting Mountbatten-Windsor, brother to Britain’s King Charles, during her first visit to Epstein’s island where she recalled the former prince was “frolicking, canoodling with one of the other young girls” in a pool before they were introduced later that day during dinner. She said Mountbatten-Windor left and later that night, she was assaulted by Epstein for the first time.
She said she was relentlessly contacted by both Epstein and his secretaries in the months after the assault on the island, which she linked to “maybe who I'd seen there”. She worked as a model and said Epstein “had a lot to do with the modelling industry” which kept her in his grasp.
However, she said a conversation with a friend who also experienced abuse because of Epstein opened her eyes to the wider network of abuse around him.
“I had a really close girlfriend who came to me one evening and said, ‘When I was over at Jeffrey's house in the Upper East Side mansion, he forced me to go into a room to have sex with a man.’ So we started talking about a little bit, and started realising there's something deeper and darker going on here.
“But, of course, we had no idea what it was, like we do today. Knowing those two things, I just said I've got to get away from this person.”
She said she moved across the country to escape him and 15 years later learned of Epstein’s death when it was reported on television.
“A weight just immediately came off my shoulders, because now I felt free to be able to talk about it and maybe understand what happened to me,” she said.
Phillips said she is speaking out to highlight the global nature of Epstein’s human trafficking ring and came to Ireland after another survivor revealed she had been trafficked through Ireland.
“It's not just in the United States. It's a global human trafficking ring,” she said. When asked by Patrick Kielty if she thought abuse may have happened in Ireland as Epstein’s plane landed here several times, she replied: “What I do know from talking to many survivors is Jeffrey didn't fly without a harem of girls.”
She called for a thorough investigation to take place.
Dancing with the Stars judges Karen Byrne and Brian Redmond on the Late Late ShowEarlier in the show, Dancing with the Stars judges Brian Redmond and Karen Byrne reflected on nine seasons of the popular show ahead of its 100th episode this weekend.
Pro-dancer-turned-judge Byrne said the show changed her life, not least because it’s where she met her fiancé, Jake Carter.
“I have so much to thank Dancing with the Stars for because of all the opportunities and everything, and sure I met me fiancé and everything on the set,” she said.
Redmond also paid tribute to former co-host Julian Benson, who died last year following a long battle with cystic fibrosis.
“He was just such a special person,” Redmond said.
“I’d like to think that most of us will be fortunate enough at some point in our lives to have somebody who can change people's lives in the way he has, and I'm not even talking about the work that he's done with Tranquility House. He changed everybody that was around him.
“We knew and we loved ‘Captain Sparkles’, but behind that, there was a man who had huge intelligence, huge emotional intelligence. He did a degree in psychology as well as Irish and English, and he wore that intelligence well.”
Dearbhla Mescal and Patrick Kielty on the Late Late ShowAuthor Dearbhla Mescal spoke to Patrick Kielty about her quest to find everyday joy. She said it was first prompted when she was in the midst of motherhood after chatting to another parent as the sidelines of a match.
“I remember thinking, I'm going to have to figure out something to get from here to there in this time of my life where I'm working, I'm trying to mother, I'm trying to be a great guard, I'm trying to be a great partner, I’m trying to be a great mom. You're trying to do it all, and you're juggling everything,” she recalled.
“I decided, for whatever reason, that I was going to do a 28 day challenge for myself, and I was going to do it on Facebook at the time. So I went and sought joy actively, went out trying to see it, tried to find it. Not every day was easy. Actually, there was a lots of days that weren't easy.”
Years later, when her children — who include actor Paul and singer Nell — were adults, she faced another challenge: a cancer diagnosis and a very important date. When she was undergoing treatment, her son Paul invited her to be his plus-one at the Oscars. She said her doctor, Patrick Hayden, made the trip possible.
“He said, ‘You will go to the ball.’ He was wonderful. I'm guessing doctors want you to live the fullest life you can have, even if you're sick, so they want you to have all the life experiences. He allowed me to live in joy through a very dark, awful time.
Late Late Show host Patrick Kielty with Dominic Cooper, Sarah Bolger, and Serena TerryStars of The Lighthouse, Dominic Cooper and Sarah Bolger, spoke about their experience filming in Donegal, which Cooper recalled fondly.
“I fell completely in love with it. Actually, it was a very emotional it was a very healing, beautiful place to be. And the people there were wonderful as well,” Cooper said, adding that his mother died not long before filming began and the community he found in Donegal was “almost the perfect remedy”.
“I've always felt this in Ireland, the soil is so rich in something. It's fizzing with something, there's so much energy. It's unlike anywhere I've ever been. You feel something's inhabiting you and people who are gone are there. It's very spiritual. And that particular part of Ireland I'd never been to, and it was healing and beautiful.”
Bolger, who made her film debut as a young child in In America, credits director Jim Sheridan with changing her live by casting her in the film at such a young age.
“Jim Sheridan genuinely changed my life. That movie changed my life. It changed my whole trajectory,” she said.
“I'm not good at anything else. So the fact thatI found this career so early, I am completely grateful every single day, because without that film, I don't know what I'd be doing.”
Viral comedian Serena Terry, also known as ‘Mammy Banter’, spoke about how downloading TikTok to her phone during the pandemic for a few laughs led to her gaining millions of followers online.
“I loved it because it felt so authentic. It was real,” she said of the app.
“People talking about the quiet parts out loud, about their mental health, about the weight gain, about parenting failures, about how they were losing their minds.”
The Derry woman has since written two books and has an upcoming tour as well.
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