Juliette Bryant was at a Cape Town cocktail lounge with a friend when an associate of Jeffrey Epstein approached her. “This guy is bothering me,” the woman, an American actress named Naja Hill, told them that night in September 2002. “Can I hang out with you guys?”
Bryant, who had just turned 20, understood that women must look out for one another and welcomed the beautiful stranger to join them. When Hill learned Bryant was an aspiring model, she suggested they find her “billionaire” friend Jeffrey, who she falsely claimed was the owner of Victoria’s Secret and could jump-start Bryant’s career.
Hill, who had emphasized Epstein’s celebrity contacts, shared that the financier was currently at a chic restaurant nearby with none other than former President Bill Clinton, and actors Kevin Spacey and Chris Tucker. She asked Bryant if she’d like to meet them. Bryant and Hill then hopped in a car, giddy at the opportunity to make their acquaintance.
“I was a silly young 20-year-old and thought it sounded like such an amazing opportunity considering the people he was here with,” Bryant told The Daily Beast, in her first in-depth media interview about surviving Epstein’s sex ring. She also spoke to BBC Two for its new series about Epstein’s former girlfriend and now-convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. The show, House of Maxwell, premiered on Monday.
“That’s what gave Epstein credibility,” Bryant added. “The fact that he was with Clinton.”
According to Bryant, when she arrived at the restaurant, Clinton stood up to shake her hand and didn’t let go, even when he began speaking to someone else. “He just kept holding onto my hand,” Bryant told us. “It was like a dream. It was so bizarre.”
She would also see the famous Democrat again the next day, after Hill invited her to join their entourage and show Epstein her modeling portfolio.
Bryant crossed paths with Clinton and Epstein as they toured Africa on a high-profile humanitarian trip, during which the former president, his Secret Service team, and others flew aboard Epstein’s private jet dubbed the “Lolita Express.” Clinton has not spoken publicly about this journey or his multiple other flights with Epstein aside from a 2019 statement which claimed he knew “nothing” about the late sex offender’s “terrible crimes.”
