The director behind the Melania documentary stuttered through his defense of a photo showing him with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Brett Ratner, the 56-year-old director best known for the hit comedy franchise Rush Hour, was cornered on his photo with the disgraced financier that came out as part of the latest Justice Department file dump. The image showed Epstein and Ratner each cuddling a blonde woman whose face had been redacted.
British pundit Piers Morgan quizzed Ratner on the now-viral photo in a Monday episode of Piers Morgan Uncensored. The director stumbled over his words as he sought to explain himself.
“Oh, well, that particular picture—that picture in particular—happened around 20 years ago. Nineteen, 20, 21 years ago, because that is a photograph of my fiancée who invited me to this event, and that’s where the picture was taken,” he said. “I had never been in contact with Jeffrey Epstein before that photo and I was never in contact with him after. So that’s a picture of my—me and my fiancée at some event.”
Ratner declined to identify the woman in the photo.
“You know she doesn’t want me sharing her name in the case but that’s my fiancée, hundred percent—was my fiancée. I’m not with her anymore,” he said. The woman whom Ratner was holding by the waist in the photo did not appear to be wearing a ring.
But Morgan continued to grill Ratner over his ties to Epstein. The director had previously been accused of sexual harassment or misconduct by six different women, which his attorney has denied.
“Your position is you never met Epstein before or after that picture?” he asked.
“No, never, never,” Ratner responded.
When asked to comment on the broader Epstein saga, the director lamented that his name had been dragged into the controversy.
“I mean, it’s horrible. You see, I’ve been somehow sucked in, you know, through an image. So, you know, there’s so many stories about so many different people. It’s hard to really follow and track what’s truth and what’s not truth,” he said.
“You could see where one photograph kind of puts me, you know, there with him, and then all the stories start to spin out. So, I don’t really know because I didn’t know him. It wasn’t really my world, you know. It’s not really my world,” he went on.
Marc Beckman, the Melania producer who joined Ratner for the interview, jumped in to redirect the conversation to the first lady’s $75 million vanity project.
“Piers, I could tell you—and I’m not sitting here as his defense attorney—I can tell you that this guy has been in the trenches making the film, promoting the film, and what’s been top of mind for him has been building this number one highest opening for Melania and I think that, as far as that topic goes, I could understand why he might not have a bigger point of view,” he said.
Morgan appeared satisfied.
“You know what, I put the question to you about the picture. You’ve given a pretty emphatic answer. We’ll leave it there,” he responded.
Ratner is among a number of high-profile identities included in the Epstein files. Former president Bill Clinton, Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger and Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates are also contained within. They have not been implicated or convicted of crimes. Many of those linked to the files have denied any wrongdoing.
Ratner’s presence on the Melania set rattled some crew members, with two-thirds of its New York crew requesting their names not be included in the credits.
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