‘I was thrilled’: Models react to death of Epstein associate

(NewsNation Now) — Two former models associated with a friend of Jeffrey Epstein said they found it difficult to find reasons to be sympathetic about his death.

Jean-Luc Brunel, a French modeling agent who was close to Epstein was found dead Saturday in his French jail cell. He was being held there in an investigation into the rape of minors and trafficking of minors for sexual exploitation, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office.

Former models Zoë Brock, who was sent to live with Brunel at the age of 17 to begin her modeling career, said she wasn’t particularly upset to learn of his death.

“I didn’t feel sad. I wasn’t elated. But I felt like, ‘Oh, good,’” Brock said.

She said she was told Brunel’s home would be the “safest place” for her because Brunel wasn’t there at the time. But that changed when he came home from his travels.

“He, fairly quickly — within the first sort of six hours of being back — told me that I had to have sex with him and gave me drugs,” Brock said.

When she refused, she faced retaliation and was sent away.

“Once I managed to avoid him and it became clear to him that I wasn’t going to comply and I wasn’t going to be easy, I was removed and sent to a really yucky place to stay and had my reputation slandered around Europe,” Broc saidk. “And unfortunately, I left behind another underage girl who has not come forward who I know had a really rotten time.”

Lorin Cole, another former model living in New York at the time, said she had a similar experience when she rejected Brunel while she was in a relationship and was “thrilled” to hear about his death.

“It became ridiculous,” she said. “And then one day, he just grabbed the phone. And he said, ‘Miss Cole, if you don’t get off your high horse and go to dinner with me, you’re not going to get any work.’”

Cole hopes the revelations about Epstein and Brunel serve as a warning for other predators.

“I’m just so glad that he’s gone,” she said. “And I think it poses an example. And I think others will think twice before they move forward with this kind of behavior. It’s got to stop.”

Paris police are investigating Brunel’s death, the prosecutor’s office said. The circumstances of his death were not made public and Brunel’s lawyers did not comment on it.

Brunel denied wrongdoing and said via his lawyer that he was willing to talk to investigators. Brunel’s legal team had repeatedly complained about the conditions of his detention and sought to have him released pending trial.

Brunel, who was in his 70s, was detained at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport in 2020 as part of a broad French probe unleashed by the U.S. sex-trafficking charges against Epstein.

A frequent companion of Epstein, Brunel was considered central to the French investigation into alleged sexual exploitation of women and girls by the U.S. financier and his circle. Epstein traveled often to France and had apartments in Paris.

Multiple women who identified themselves as victims have spoken to police since the French probe was opened in 2019, and at times expressed frustration with the slow pace of the investigation.