In February 2026, a video (archived) circulated online that appeared to show Ghislaine Maxwell, the former partner of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, walking freely around Quebec, Canada.
In the video, a person appeared to bump into Maxwell on the street in Quebec, asking "Ghislaine, do I know you? You're not Ghislaine?" After the person the video shook their head no, the recorder continued, "I used to order hella pizza off of her, she always delivered, yeah." Pizza appeared to be a reference to the "pizzagate" conspiracy theory, which Snopes has previously reported on.
One Instagram user who posted the video wrote, "Is it Ghislaine and her brother or Ghislaine and Alan Dershowitz spotted in Canada??"
The video also circulated on X (archived), Facebook (archived), Threads (archived), TikTok (archived), Bluesky and Reddit (archived). Snopes readers wrote in asking whether the video really showed Maxwell.
If the video were authentic, meaning not edited or generated using artificial intelligence, it would be very notable given that, according to the Department of Justice, Maxwell was serving a 20-year prison sentence in early 2026 for her role in sexually exploiting and abusing minor girls with Epstein. Maxwell received her sentence in 2022 and was incarcerated in Texas at the time of this writing, according to the Bureau of Prisons.
We contacted the Instagram user @clump.qc, who first posted the video (archived) on Feb. 19, 2026, to ask for more information about the footage. The user appeared to admit in messages to another user that the video was an AI face swap, a technology that allows users to replace a person's face in videos and photos.
Close inspection of the video that claimed to show Maxwell revealed inconsistencies that suggested the person shown wasn't the British socialite.
Given the Instagram user's own reported admission and visual evidence, we find the video to be fake, meaning it did not show Maxwell out and about in Quebec.
Messages suggest video is fake
At the time of this writing, the top comment on @clump.qc's video read, "Just so everyone knows, this video is AI face swap. I messaged the video creator, he said so and in a very douchey way too. I can provide receipts." That user also posted a screen recording that claimed to show an exchange with @clump.qc.
In that apparent exchange, @clump.qc reportedly said that the video was "a faceswap bro, look at my other vids. You think I met benjamin netanyahu, mark carney, jeff epstein and ghislaine," appearing to suggest that the videos were fake.
The user @clump.qc also reposted a screenshot of what appeared to be a direct message on their own Instagram Stories, in which a user asked them to post "the og video of the faceswap." They refused, appearing to say they wanted to protect the person's privacy.
(Instagram users @clump.qc and @marniethedog)
Snopes contacted @clump.qc to directly confirm with them that the video was AI and we await a reply.
The user previously posted similar "chance encounter" videos with Epstein, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. The user hashtagged the "Epstein" and "Netanyahu" videos "funny" and "prank," appearing to suggest they were not authentic.
Maxwell's teeth give video away
The user @clump.qc reportedly claimed to have used AI face swap technology to edit the video of "Maxwell." That would mean the user had the interaction seen in the video with someone in real life but used AI to replace their face with Maxwell's.
The video's verifiable recording location in Quebec suggested the user who posted it used a real video as their base material.
Despite containing seemingly real elements, the "Maxwell" video also contained inconsistencies. For example, "Maxwell's" teeth in the video differed from authentic photos of the Maxwell.
Maxwell's
Getty Images photos of Maxwell showed that when she smiled, her right top incisor (first tooth to the left of the left front tooth in the photo) left space between the bottom of the tooth and her lower lip and did not show her lower teeth. In the video of "Maxwell" in Quebec, "Maxwell's" smile showed both her right top and bottom incisor.
We've also previously investigated claims that Epstein, who an FBI investigation found committed suicide in 2019, is still alive.