In early March 2026, two photos (archived) circulated online that claimed to show former U.S. President Bill Clinton wearing pajamas while carrying and sitting next to physicist Stephen Hawking, who was wearing a princess costume.
According to some posts, the images were part of a massive Department of Justice release of more than 3 million files related to its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. The disgraced financier died in a Manhattan prison cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
One Facebook page that shared the images on March 9, 2026, wrote:
Recently resurfaced images from the Jeffrey Epstein files have once again drawn attention online. In the photos, former U.S. President Bill Clinton appears posing in a room with a "princess-themed" setting, which many people on the internet have found unusual. The pictures have sparked debate and curiosity, with users questioning the context of the setting and Clinton's presence there.
The images also circulated on X (archived, archived), Instagram (archived), Threads (archived) and TikTok (archived).
The images of Clinton and Hawking were fakes generated by artificial intelligence. They originated with Facebook user Marc-André Lavoie — who shares a name with a Canadian filmmaker but is not the same person. Lavoie told Snopes via direct message he created the images using Grok, the generative AI chatbot on X.
Lavoie first shared (archived, archived) the images in a Facebook group called "Crazed AI" in late February and early March 2026. He told Snopes he initially posted the images on sites and groups "clearly identified" as those sharing AI-generated content to make his intentions clear and avoid the spread of "fake news."
Despite this, the images were later shared across other social media platforms without disclaimers stating that they were fake. Lavoie told Snopes, "I find the context of my images so absurd that I did not expect anyone to believe they were real."
The online AI-detection tool Hive Moderation correctly identified that Grok had generated both images. Sightengine, another online AI-detection tool did not identify the images as AI-generated.
(Sightengine/Hive Moderation/Snopes Illustration)
As this analysis shows, these types of AI detection tools are fallible. Snopes cautions people against using them for definitive answers on media's authenticity without supporting evidence.
While the Epstein files include references to both Clinton and Hawking, they do not contain the specific images shared in the above social media posts. Lavoie's posts in the "Crazed AI" Facebook group included alleged Epstein file numbers that did not return results on the DOJ database and appeared to follow a different naming convention than the one the agency uses. The DOJ typically starts its Epstein files release names with "EFTA" — letters that Lavoie did not include.
Inclusion in the files does not automatically confirm any wrongdoing.
Snopes has reported extensively on the Epstein files, including another purported image of Clinton and his wife and former Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, and Epstein.