Did the Associated Press publish a fact check titled 'No, Ghislaine Maxwell did not own a horse named "Bubba"' and did it mention her having a golden retriever at the time? No, that's not true: A viral screenshot showing such a headline along with AP's logo and mentioning Jeffrey Epstein is fake. There is no such story on the Associated Press website. The screenshot referenced "Live" coverage of the 2024 election while the email referencing "Bubba" only appeared in 2025.
One example of the image appeared in a post on Bluesky (archived here) where it was published on November 16, 2025 with a caption that read:
talk about burying the lede
This is what the image looked like:
(Image source: Bluesky post by @illumi.meme)
The headline in the screenshot read:
No, Ghislaine Maxwell did not own a horse named "Bubba"
Below that, the first line of the supposed story was half visible, it read:
She did, however, have a golden retriever at the time of her and Epstein's...
A Google search limited to the website of Associated Press (apnews.com) for pages containing the words "Maxwell", "Bubba" and "golden retriever" returned no results (archived here). A similar search directly on the website of Associated Press also returned no results (archived here).
The email in which Jeffrey Epstein's brother Mark referenced someone named "Bubba" was only released in 2025. Yet the screenshot referenced "Live: Election 2024" coverage in the header, another indication it was fabricated. Mark Epstein's spokesperson confirmed to Lead Stories that the "Bubba" reference in the email was about a person, not a horse, contrary to online rumors.
Lead Stories reached out to the Associated Press by email and this story will be updated when a reply is received.
