Did Jeffrey Epstein have a secret son with the Belarusian magnificence – greater than 35 years his junior – now in line for his fortune?

Hundreds of young women and girls passed through the revolving doors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sordid world, but very few were ever afforded the ‘honour’ of calling themselves his girlfriend.

There was one significant other, of course: Ghislaine Maxwell, the former British socialite, whose ten-year romance and even longer business partnership with the disgraced financier ended with her serving a 20-year prison sentence for trafficking young girls on his behalf, to be used and abused by him and his associates.

Few will have heard, however, of the other woman who was a constant at his side for the last ten years of his life.

Her name is Karyna Shuliak, a Belarusian-born qualified dentist, more than 35 years his junior, who very nearly became his wife.

She was possibly the last person to speak to the convicted paedophile on the phone the day before he was found hanged in his prison cell in Metropolitan Correctional Centre in New York in August 2019, as he awaited trial for sex trafficking. Karyna, now 36, later reported that her lover had sounded far from suicidal.

And it is this ‘secret girlfriend’ who, according to newly released documents, Epstein wanted to inherit most of his vast fortune.

Speaking exclusively to The Mail on Sunday, a Russian friend of Karyna insisted theirs was a tempestuous and passionate relationship, based on love. ‘Karyna was madly in love with Epstein,’ she said. 

‘She was nicknamed “the inspector” because she was jealous and was always investigating who he was in contact with.’

After Epstein’s death, she became very ‘depressed’, her friend says, leaving everyone ‘worried about her’ and her ‘very complicated situation’.

‘She was always next to him,’ the source added, ‘but she absolutely wasn’t there because of [his] money. Many friends and acquaintances turned their back on Epstein after prison, and no-one stayed with him, except Karyna who was there until the very last moment.’

Widespread theories continue to circulate over Epstein’s death. Although an inquest ruled it was suicide, it’s been suggested that he was murdered to protect high-profile associates he might have named in his forthcoming trial.

Whatever happened, two days before his death, aged 66, Epstein signed a will naming Karyna the prime beneficiary of his fortune.

Other recipients included his brother Mark, his long-term accountant, lawyer and pilot – and Maxwell whose loyalty he wanted to reward to the tune of $10 million (£7.3 million).

But it was Karyna whom he wanted to bequeath the lion’s share, including his £20 million Zorro Ranch in New Mexico, a £7.3 million flat in central Paris, his infamous townhouse in New York, which was sold for £37.3 million, and the equally disreputable £13.5 million estate in Palm Beach, Florida. 

She was also due to inherit Epstein’s two US Virgin Islands, which were sold for £44 million in 2023 to be redeveloped as a resort. 

Epstein’s estate was valued at approximately £330 million at the time of his death, but recent court filings put the value at only £88 million due to fees, taxes and the restitutions to dozens of his young female victims. More claims are said to be outstanding.

A question mark remains over what will be left for the little-known Soviet brunette, whose loyalty and discretion Epstein valued so highly.

Tantalising details of their toxic, but enduring, relationship have been revealed in the latest cache of more than three million documents published by the US Department of Justice earlier this month.

Karyna, a former student at Belarus State Medical University, reportedly came to the US in 2010 when she was 20 after having struck up a flirtatious friendship with the billionaire via email. She was introduced to Epstein by an unnamed Russian woman.

By then, Epstein was already a registered sex offender. He had been released from prison in 2009 after serving 13 months of an 18-month jail sentence for soliciting underage girls for prostitution and was living under house arrest in Miami throughout 2010.

Yet they’d fallen for each other. The documents include emails in which the pair declare their love – all while Epstein continued to assault other girls and young women behind Karyna’s back. 

‘I love you! You are the purest of all men!’ she said in an email in 2012 after he gave her advice about her immigration status.

The couple had various pet names for each other. ‘Bumpy can’t wait for Wowie to come back,’ Karyna wrote to Epstein in the same year. Epstein also called himself ‘Vassily’ and Karyna ‘Captain’.

In another missive, Karyna wrote ‘Lublu Vas!’ – a Russian phrase meaning ‘I love you’ while Epstein replied ‘I do I do I do’.

There were jealousies too, first and foremost over the numbers of women who flocked around Epstein, which Karyna clearly struggled with. 

As shown in one email in which he chides her: ‘Your concern over women is unnecessary. It is causing much of the stress between us. 

‘The first day we became together I told you please, there are always women around, if they will make you jealous or anxious, it will be a problem.’

Clearly, Karyna and Epstein felt deeply for each other but the age difference and his obsession with other girls continued to bother her.

Writing in 2012, Epstein tells her: ‘I would greatly appreciate it if instead of counting days, hours or minutes together, we concentrated on making the time we spend, less stressful, more fun.’

Curiously, Epstein – a man who once boasted that he needed three orgasms a day – found himself in his girlfriend’s bad books in 2013 following a week-long sex drought.

‘For the whole week we didn’t have sex,’ Karyna complained, to which Epstein hit back: ‘Not enough kisses, not enough time, not enough sex, why this, why that, did you, why did you.’

Jealous tantrums aside, however, being Epstein’s girlfriend came with huge advantages: he was instrumental in securing her permanent residency in the US.

Based on the documents, in 2013 Epstein encouraged Karyna to enter into a sham marriage with a woman in his orbit, a US citizen called Jennifer Kalin, to qualify for a much-coveted Green Card.

To aid the process, Epstein hired New York immigration lawyer Arda Beskardes who also managed to get her full US citizenship five years later, the documents show.

‘Now she’s an American, you should throw her a party with a mechanical bull, red, white and blue balloons and deep-fried Snickers bars on flag toothpicks,’ the lawyer wrote to her client, after the paperwork was rubber-stamped.

Epstein’s generosity also extended to helping Karyna continue her dental training at Teachers College, part of New York’s Columbia University, and to obtain a US licence to practice dentistry, after which she began referring to herself as Dr Shuliak.

Karyna had initially been denied entrance to its dental school but it reversed its decision after Epstein made a $100,000 (£74,000) donation to the Dean and floated a bigger donation of $5 million.

Last week, Columbia University said a student – Karyna was not named in the statement – had been admitted via an ‘irregular process’ that didn’t meet Columbia’s ‘standards for integrity and independence’.

Karyna’s parents, Fyodor and Tatyana, back home in Minsk, where Karyna was born, also benefited from their daughter’s relationship. 

Today, they live in an upscale apartment worth £370,000 (about 30 times the average salary) in an exclusive neighbourhood with BMWs, Mercedes and Porsches parked nearby. Sources say their quality of life markedly improved after Karyna met Epstein.

The latest tranche of files released in the US show evidence of wire transfers to the couple totalling $80,000 (£60,000).

Epstein also paid for Tatyana’s breast cancer surgery at the world-renowned Mount Sinai hospital in New York in 2013 ‘and for all follow-up hospital checks,’ said the source. ‘She made several trips.

‘He crippled many lives, but he saved hers, and I appreciate him for that. She wouldn’t have survived otherwise.’

Karyna’s father, meanwhile, was said to be enamoured of his daughter’s powerful boyfriend and hoped to enter into property deals with the businessman in Belarus.

Plans were made for Epstein to visit the family. However, he never made the trip.

When approached by the MoS at their apartment, Tatyana did not want to speak about her daughter’s relationship. ‘So what?’ was all she had to say.

For all her humble beginnings, Karyna developed expensive tastes while living in the US, the documents show.

Credit card bills from 2017 show she enjoyed shopping sprees in New York, once spending $13,539 (£9,900) in the upmarket Bloomingdale’s department store.

Money was also splashed out on restaurants and cafés and bed linen from high-end shops like Pratesi. 

A small fortune went on food delivery: a single takeaway order from upscale Chinese restaurant Philippe Chow cost $874 (£620). Another $880 (£644) was marked for ‘personal beauty’ products.

She tried to make herself invaluable to her Svengali-like lover by involving herself in the maintenance of his properties – a role once assigned to her predecessor Ghislaine Maxwell – and supervised the purchase of rugs, curtains, furniture and artwork.

She also oversaw the purchase of staff uniforms for all Epstein’s properties, sending multiple emails on Epstein’s behalf to a supplier about the location and size of the Epstein logo on the clothing.

As well as travelling with Epstein to his many homes, on one occasion she took business-class flights to Tokyo and Kyoto for herself and a friend, largely at Epstein’s expense, and also travelled to London with her then ‘wife’ (they officially divorced in 2019).

In April 2016, she was in email contact with David Stern, an intermediary for Epstein and an adviser to the former Prince Andrew and a director of Andrew’s Pitch@Palace business initiative.

He was more than happy to help Karyna and her friend with some sightseeing during their trip to London. 

‘Jeffrey told me you were coming to London,’ he says in an email. ‘Let me know what you are up to and if there is anything I can help? Do you want to go to the Changing of the Guards?’

Karyna responds that she would be delighted and is advised that she and her companion must bring photo ID and dress formally, suggesting they would be allocated VIP spots for the ceremony.

She comes across as being rather bossy with the other young women and girls in Epstein’s world; in one email exchange, as they prepared to fly to Epstein’s island, she berates them for forgetting to pack his favourite muffins.

In 2014, he rebuked Karyna for not balancing her college studies with her personal obligations, scolding her: ‘You are in dental school, not the front lines in a war where people are dying.’

The telling-off clearly stung: ‘You have absolutely ruined me today, each minute I am struggling to not cry,’ she wrote.

However, there were happy times. Photographs and videos from the files show Karyna laughing as she dances with Epstein on his private jet – dubbed the Lolita Express – and in his townhouse.

It also hints at some of the deeper, darker secrets she may still hold for her ex-lover.

One explosive email has emerged, allegedly sent by Sarah Ferguson, the former Duchess of York, in 2011, in which she references Epstein having had a son.

At this stage, Epstein appeared to be severing his ties with Ferguson, to whom he gave many generous cash gifts over the years – while she seemed to be trying to wheedle her way back into his affections.

‘Heard from the Duke that you have had a baby boy,’ she wrote. ‘Even though you never kept in touch, I am still here with love, friendship and congratulations on your baby boy. Sarah xxx.’

Karyna is not named in relation to the child who, if he exists, would be a teenager today. 

Epstein’s brother Mark also denies the existence of any secret offspring.

Karyna’s world came screeching to a halt on July 6, 2019. She was said to have flown with Epstein, aboard his private jet, as they returned from Paris to Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, when FBI agents and New York police officers arrested him.

A month later, he was dead.

Nearly seven years on, it remains unclear just how much of Epstein’s estate is left for his ex-girlfriend to inherit – if anything.

Karyna is rarely seen in public these days but is said to still live in a New York apartment building owned by Epstein’s brother Mark. She did not respond when the MoS approached her for comment.

Her Russian friend said: ‘She lives in the past and hopes for his will. She has enough for now to cover her living expenses… but I don’t know how long it will last.’