A photograph of Stephen Hawking relaxing on a sunbed with two women in bikinis has resurfaced amid the release of thousands of documents related to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. The image, released by the US Department of Justice this month, shows the late astrophysicist grinning, though no details on its date or location have been provided. Many similar photos are believed to have been taken on Epstein's private island in the US Virgin Islands.
Hawking, who died in 2018 aged 76, is known to have visited Epstein's island in March 2006 for a five-day physics conference on gravity, before Epstein faced any sexual offence charges. The Cambridge professor is referenced at least 250 times in the Epstein Files, though such mentions do not imply any wrongdoing. Hawking himself has never been accused of a crime.
While celebrated for his scientific work, Hawking's personal life was marked by two marriages. His first wife, Jane Hawking, whom he married in 1965 after meeting at a party, supported him through his diagnosis with motor neurone disease. The marriage ended in 1990 after 26 years, partly due to the strain of his condition and physics, as well as Jane's close platonic friendship with Jonathan Hellyer Jones.
Hawking then married his nurse, Elaine Mason, in 1995. He described the 11-year marriage as "passionate and tempestuous" before their split in 2006. Despite being given only a few years to live after his diagnosis at age 22, Hawking defied expectations, fathering three children and continuing his research until his death.
