Fact Check: Is Ghislaine Maxwell out of prison and now residing in Canada?

Video of a woman claiming to be Ghislain Maxwell walking on a street in Canada’s Quebec City has gone viral
PUBLISHED FEB 23, 2026
Viral video claims to show Ghislaine Maxwell out of prison and in Canada (Getty Images, @RT_com/X)
Viral video claims to show Ghislaine Maxwell out of prison and in Canada (Getty Images, @RT_com/X)

BRYAN, TEXAS: Amid the controversies and conspiracy theories following the release of a massive tranche of files linked to Jeffrey Epstein, a claim has been circulating on social media platforms that Ghislaine Maxwell, a former associate of Epstein who is now serving her sentence, has left the prison and is now in Canada. Let us fact-check it.

Claim: Ghislaine Maxwell spotted in Canada

Ghislaine Maxwell has been in jail since last year (Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images)
Video of a woman claiming to be Ghislaine Maxwell walking on a street in Canada’s Quebec City has gone viral online (Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images)

Video of a woman claiming to be Maxwell walking on a street in Canada’s Quebec City has gone viral online. 

The video shows a man filming while walking down a street when he sees a woman wearing a blue jacket and calls her 'Ghislaine.' She replies, “No, sorry,” and keeps walking. The man then says he 'used to order pizza' from her. The video also includes the words 'she used to hook me up with pizza.'

The video has prompted social media users to question if Maxwell, who is serving a long prison sentence, has somehow been released.

Fact Check: The video is digitally manipulated

Ghislaine Maxwell attends the preview party for The Royal Academy Of Arts Summer Exhibition 2013 at Royal Academy of Arts on June 5, 2013 in London, England. (Photo by Nick Harvey/WireImage)
Ghislaine Maxwell attends the preview party for The Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition 2013 at Royal Academy of Arts on June 5, 2013, in London, England (Nick Harvey/WireImage)

But there is no evidence to prove that the woman in the video is Maxwell. The video's creator confirmed to Les Décrypteurs that the footage was altered using artificial intelligence.

The administrator of the Instagram page clump.qc, who created the video, claims he made it for absurd purposes.

According to Grok, the AI assistant of X, “The viral video shows a woman in Quebec who resembles Ghislaine Maxwell, but it's not her." 

Maxwell remains incarcerated in Federal Prison Camp Bryan, Texas, serving a 20-year sentence, per official Bureau of Prisons records and reports from sources like BBC, NPR, and Hindustan Times. No confirmed sightings outside prison.”

Release of millions of documents linked to Jeffrey Epstein 

In this handout, the mug shot of Jeffrey Epstein, 2019. (Photo by Kypros/Getty Images)
In this handout, the mug shot of Jeffrey Epstein, 2019 (Kypros/Getty Images)

The video surfaced following the Department of Justice's release on January 30 of millions of additional pages of records connected to Epstein. 

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

The decision to release the files 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.

Numerous individuals listed in the records are mentioned in flight logs, interviews, third-party communications, or ancillary investigative documents without being accused of any criminal activity.

Several unverified allegations and conspiracy theories also surfaced online following the release of the controversial documents.

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