When Maria Lopez opened her dresser drawer last week and saw the pink Victoria’s Secret bag she’d kept for 20 years, she burst into tears and threw every lace bra and satin panty into the trash. She wasn’t alone. Thousands of lifelong customers are now learning that the empire that sold them “empowerment” and “sexy confidence” was allegedly fueled by a dark arrangement: billionaire Les Wexner handed Jeffrey Epstein power of attorney over his fortune, his homes, even his yacht, in exchange for services that new court documents and insider accounts describe as far more sinister than anyone imagined. What was once whispered as a “mutual exchange” is now exposed in raw detail, leaving shoppers staring at old receipts and asking: Did my money help fund a predator’s playground?
When Maria Lopez opened her dresser drawer last week and spotted the pink Victoria’s Secret bag she had kept for nearly twenty years, something inside her snapped. The bag had once symbolized excitement, indulgence, a tiny escape into a world of glossy wings and glittering runways. But now, with headlines resurfacing about the company’s powerful founder and his long-questioned ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the symbol felt poisoned. Maria burst into tears, then grabbed every lace bra and satin panty she owned and threw them into a black trash bag. She wasn’t the only one.
Across the country, thousands of once-loyal customers are experiencing the same disorienting betrayal. For decades, Victoria’s Secret sold them “empowerment,” “confidence,” and a fantasy of womanhood polished to perfection. But emerging court records, old testimonies brought back into the spotlight, and renewed scrutiny of the past are forcing many to confront an unsettling truth: the empire that taught women to “feel like angels” had shadows extending far beyond the runway lights.
At the center of the storm is the relationship between billionaire Les Wexner—the architect behind L Brands and the man who turned Victoria’s Secret into a cultural force—and Jeffrey Epstein, whose crimes have since become synonymous with manipulation and abuse. Although the broad outline of their association has been reported for years, the granular details being re-examined now are far more disturbing than many shoppers ever realized.
Publicly available documents show that Wexner granted Epstein an extraordinary level of control: power of attorney over finances, access to homes, legal authority to sign documents on his behalf, even influence over major real-estate decisions. For a financial advisor, that level of trust is exceptionally rare. For someone who would later be charged with sex trafficking, it is almost incomprehensible.
For years, this arrangement was politely brushed off as “mutually beneficial”—Epstein managed money, Wexner received exclusive financial services and advice. But as Epstein’s abuses came to light, the question grew louder: why did Wexner place so much power in the hands of a man who would ultimately be exposed as a predator?
Only those inside the relationship know the full truth. Yet the emotional fallout is being felt most acutely by ordinary customers, many of them women who once saw Victoria’s Secret as a rare treat, a purchase that made them feel bold and beautiful. Now, they are left wondering whether their dollars helped sustain a system they never agreed to be part of.
“I looked at my old receipts and felt sick,” Maria said. “I thought I was buying confidence. I didn’t know what might have been happening behind the curtain.”
Victoria’s Secret has spent the past few years trying to distance itself from its past—new leadership, rebranding efforts, a public shift toward inclusivity. But even as the brand reinvents itself, the legacy of the Wexner-Epstein connection hangs over its history like a shadow that refuses to fade.
And as more women toss their iconic pink bags into the garbage, one question cuts through the noise with painful clarity:
Did the things that once made them feel powerful unknowingly contribute to a world built on someone else’s power and someone else’s harm?
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