Fact Check: Has Ghislaine Maxwell been hospitalized due to food poisoning?

WASHINGTON, DC: Following the release of a new wave of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein on Friday, January 30, a claim has been going viral on social media that Ghislaine Maxwell, the associate of the disgraced financier, who is currently serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted of trafficking, has been hospitalized due to food poisoning. There have been speculations about the claim's authenticity, so let us fact-check it. 

Claim: Ghislaine Maxwell hospitalized due to food poisoning

The claim that is going viral is in the form of a screenshot attributed to the Instagram handle of Sky News, which first surfaced on an X (formerly Twitter) account called @BackupJeffx.

The post came with two different images of Maxwell, with a logo of Sky News on the top, along with a text saying, “GHISLAINE MAXWELL HOSPITALIZED AFTER FOOD POISONING.” 

The post, which has garnered a hundred thousand views and thousands of likes, was accompanied by a caption saying, “Are they finishing her off ? What a coincidence…” People in the comments even seemed to take the claim to be true. 

Fact Check: The claim originated as a satire

However, the claim is false as it came from a parody account that creates such satirical posts for engagement purposes. 

The official Instagram account of Sky News has posted no such post.  

A search on Google also does not generate any relevant results supporting the claim. If the rumor were true, it would have been widely covered by credible news media outlets. 

Grok, the AI bot of X, has also debunked the claim as false, stating, “No credible sources, including Sky News, report Ghislaine Maxwell being hospitalized for food poisoning in February 2026. Recent news coverage released Epstein files and her deposition footage. The post originates from a satire account, and the image seems fabricated.”

DOJ releases new set of documents linked to Jeffrey Epstein

The claim came following the release of millions of additional pages of records connected to Epstein on Friday by the Department of Justice. 

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the release also included more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images.

The decision came after weeks of criticism that the department was not following a federal law passed in November, which required all Epstein-related files to be made public by December 19.

Among the documents were emails from 2012 to 2013 that showed Elon Musk’s name, although his email address was redacted.