Hollywood filmmaker Brett Ratner, who directed “Melania,” said the mystery woman he was caught embracing in a photo included in the DOJ’s Epstein files was actually his former fiancée, according to a report.
“About 20 years ago, I had a girlfriend. I was in love with her. We were engaged. She was my fiancée. We went to an event, and we were sitting on the couch, and the photo was taken at that event,” Ratner told Fox News Digital.
Ratner also denied have any association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“I didn’t have a personal relationship with him. I didn’t know him,” he told the outlet.
“And that’s where the picture was taken. I didn’t remember because I had been asked in the past, ‘Do you know him? And I’m like, I don’t think so, because I didn’t have a personal relationship with him. My fiancée invited me to that event. At the time, the girl in the picture was my fiancée. And that’s it. That’s all.”
“You get thrown into these things. It’s crazy. It’s horrible,” The “Rush Hour” director charged.
Ratner, 56, has never been married, the outlet reported.
The photos were a part of a tranche of roughly three million Epstein-related documents released by the DOJ on Friday.
In one newly released pic, Ratner was seen on the far left end of the couch in a white shirt and jeans, embracing a woman seated next to Epstein.
Another photo featured the filmmaker and Epstein flashing wide grins.
The director was also pictured in an earlier Epstein file dump posing with French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, who died by suicide in his jail cell in 2022 while facing child rape charges.
“Melania” is Ratner’s first major feature film since he was accused of sexual misconduct in 2017 by multiple women.
The documentary, which focuses on first lady Melania Trump, opened with the best box office numbers for a documentary in a decade after premiering in theaters on Thursday.
The documentary debuted to $7 million, surpassing expectations and beating the earnings of recent hits like 2024’s “Am I Racist?” which opened to $5.4 million, Deadline reported.
