What was claimed
A picture shows Boris Johnson with Ghislaine Maxwell, the daughter of Robert Maxwell.
Our verdict
This isn’t true. The photograph is actually of Mr Johnson and his first wife, Allegra Mostyn-Owen, while they were at university together in 1986.
An archive picture is being shared with false claims that it shows a young Boris Johnson with convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, who was an associate of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The image has been posted by accounts on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) amid recent reporting around the ‘Epstein files’.
But the claim that the picture depicts the former prime minister with Maxwell is misleading.
It actually shows Mr Johnson with Allegra Mostyn-Owen, in Oxford in March 1986.
They attended university together, where they became a couple, and married in 1987.
However, the enduring claim that the picture actually shows Maxwell has been circulating online for years, despite having been debunked many times before.
This is the latest in a number of misleading pictures and online claims related to Epstein that we have fact checked recently, including edited pictures of the disgraced financier with President Donald Trump.
Before sharing content like this that you see online, first consider whether it comes from a trustworthy and verifiable source. Our toolkit and guide to spotting misleading images can help you do this.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because the picture shows Boris Johnson with his first wife Allegra Mostyn-Owen when they were at university.
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