Manipulated image inaccurately places Oprah with Epstein
- Published on December 24, 2025 at 16:49
- 3 min read
- By Gwen Roley, AFP USA
As the US Justice Department began releasing highly anticipated files related to investigations into Jeffrey Epstein, social media users spread a picture they claimed shows the late convicted sex offender with Oprah Winfrey. But the image is an alteration of a photo in which British entrepreneur Richard Branson poses with Epstein; AFP found no mention of the talk show titan among the documents released as of December 24, 2025.
"Oprah bring (sic) friends with Epstein is such an incredible shock. Do you think she knew what he was into?" says a December 20 X post sharing the picture.
The image -- which appears to show Winfrey posing in vacation attire with Epstein -- spread across platforms including X, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
The picture appeared around the December 19 start of a release of a massive tranche of records related to Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking charges. The Justice Department began publishing the files to meet a deadline set by Congress as part of a law forcing the disclosure of all the documents.
Authentic photographs from the batch of materials have shown Epstein with prominent media figures including conservative pundit Steve Bannon, linguist Noam Chomsky and filmmaker Woody Allen. None of the photos had any context or showed criminal activity.
Winfrey's high profile has made her a frequent target for conspiracy theories and false claims. She has fiercely denounced QAnon-fueled allegations attempting to connect her to a supposed sex trafficking ring.
The image apparently placing her in a bathing suit next to Epstein is also not authentic; it has been altered.
Reverse image search and keyword searches surfaced the original picture from the December release of Epstein in the same outfit and setting. He is standing beside a man identified in captions as Branson, founder of the Virgin Group.
The photo of Epstein and Branson is available to download from the Justice Department's website (archived here).
AFP published the photo in a composite shot of other images from the release.
Reverse image searches did not yield matching results for the depiction of Winfrey in the manipulated image, so AFP was not able to determine the origin of the fake.
Community Notes on X claimed the picture could contain AI-generated elements, but detection tools such as Hive Moderation and Undetectable AI produced conflicting results.
Winfrey's name does not appear in the documents released as of December 24, 2025, except for mentions in news articles sent in a handful of Epstein's messages made public in November.
Branson is similarly referenced via news articles in the released emails and court filings, but his name also does not appear elsewhere in the new documents.
AFP previously debunked another manipulated photo purporting to show Attorney General Pam Bondi and President Donald Trump with Epstein following the heavily redacted document dump.
Read more of AFP's reporting on misinformation surrounding Epstein here.
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