Ghislaine Maxwell would never say anything about the Duke of York’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, according to one of her friends. Maxwell appeared in court in the US on Thursday accused of helping disgraced financier Epstein “identify, befriend and groom” multiple girls, including one as young as 14. The duke, who is a former friend of Epstein, has since been urged to provide information to the investigation by a US attorney. Laura Goldman, a former investment banker, said she had spoken to Maxwell in the past month over the investigation into Epstein’s sexual exploitation of young girls, and that she had seen she was “coming to the end of the road”. Speaking to the Today programme on Saturday, Goldman was asked if Maxwell would seek to obtain a plea deal in which she might plead guilty to some charges in return for a commuted sentence. “I think she has to,” Goldman said. Asked if she would talk about Prince Andrew, Goldman said. “No. She’s always told me that she would never ever say anything about him. I think she felt that he was her friend and she was never ever going to say anything about him. She really felt that in the 90s when her father died that Prince Andrew was there for her, in many ways.” Maxwell, the daughter of the late media mogul Robert Maxwell, faces six charges: conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, enticement of a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport minors, and transportation of a minor, with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, and two of perjury. If convicted she faces up to 35 years. She has denied any wrongdoing. Epstein was found dead in his cell, after apparently killing himself last August before facing trial on sex trafficking and conspiracy charges. Prince Andrew has come under intense pressure to cooperate with the prosecution. US prosecutors have said they would welcome a statement from the royal, while lawyers for multiple women demanded he “be a man”, “speak up” and stop “deliberately avoiding” US authorities. Sources close to the Duke of York’s legal working group have said he has offered his assistance to the investigation “on a number of occasions this year” and that the working group had “proactively contacted the DoJ twice in the last month and have received no response”. Goldman said she became friends with Maxwell in New York in the 1990s. Goldman said she attended Epstein’s “wild” parties in Palm Beach, Florida, but that she never saw Maxwell with “young women”. Asked if she thought Maxwell was under the control of Epstein, Goldman said: “Yes, I do. That doesn’t mean that what she did was OK. “I think she thought that if she did one more grooming, found him one more girl, he would marry her. Is that OK? No. She honestly thought that at the end of the day she was going to be Mrs Jeffrey Epstein. “She knew she was coming to the end of the road,” Goldman said of her most recent conversations with Maxwell. Goldman has been challenged over her relationship with Maxwell, with one of Epstein’s alleged victims, Victoria Roberts Giuffre, having called on Goldman to turn Maxwell over to police. It was reported on Friday night that Prince Andrew had organised Maxwell a private tour of Buckingham Palace, during which she had sat on a throne. A photograph obtained by the Telegraph appears to show her reclining on the throne beside the actor Kevin Spacey in 2002. The paper said the pair were on a private tour of the palace organised by the prince for the former US president, Bill Clinton.