Carole Radziwill is speaking out about her name surfacing in the Epstein files — saying she was totally in the dark about the evil doings of her onetime friend and Epstein confidant, Ghislaine Maxwell, who she now calls a “horrible person.”

The Real Housewives of New York star sat down Tuesday with Bravo host Andy Cohen for a Q&A to promote season 16 of RHONY, during which Carole’s past association with Maxwell became a hot topic.

First, Andy brought up Carole’s return to the show, recalling that she said it was an opportunity after her name appeared in the Epstein files. Carole was previously a main cast member on RHONY from 2012 to 2018.

She also said, “Obviously I didn’t know anything as no one, you know, 20 years ago would have known anything.” But, Carole said, it was hard for her to swallow that Maxwell — a “friend at some point” — “was a horrible, horrible person doing horrible things.”

In addition, Carole said she was “really nervous” when she first saw her name in the Epstein files, adding that “there’s real victims and survivors that were brave enough to really stand up to these very, very powerful people.”

Federal prosecutors say Epstein and Maxwell ran an international child sex trafficking ring. In 2019, Epstein died by suicide in a federal lockup while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. As for Maxwell, she was convicted of sex trafficking and other crimes in 2022, and then sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. 

In March, Carole also addressed the Epstein-Maxwell issue during a New York Times interview, saying she met Maxwell while they were running in the same social circles in NYC. She said her friendship with Maxwell ended long before Maxwell’s crimes came to light. Carole said she did not know Epstein.