Top modelling agency, Next Models, co-founder Faith Kates has become the latest notable name to be struck in the never-ending Jeffrey Epstein scandals.
As reported by Page Six, Kates, who co-founded the modelling agency in 1989, quietly exited the company via an email penned on November 24, after her friendly emails with the disgraced financier resurfaced.
In her resignation email, she wrote, "36 years after starting next by accident I have decided it's the right moment to step back and retire from a job I loved."
She cited her reason for stepping down as being a "30-year cancer survivor" who now wants "to step back in in order to give back."
"The foundation I have been working with for the past years [is] now at a critical point and now with the assistance of AI and the brilliant doctors we have been working with we will be able to diagnose gynaecological diseases sooner and save so many lives," she penned.
Kates concluded her email with a message for Next, sharing, "I'll be cheering you on from the sidelines."
An industry source told the outlet that she was forced out and is now "spinning it as if she's retired, but it's no coincidence that it's happening while her name is being riddled through all of the currently released Epstein files," they said.
Another shocked insider explained Kates' decision to characterise her departure as retirement was "hers and hers alone."
Kates' resurfaced Epstein emails are from 2017, two years before the billionaire was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges that landed him awaiting trial in jail.
Epstein was found dead by suicide two months after his arrest.
