Tony Hawk is clearing the air about the speculation he got married on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s private island.
“Here are the facts and timelines of my nuptials,” the pro skateboarder, 57, wrote via his Instagram Story on Thursday, February 5, per People. “And I apologize if they don’t fit a narrative of nonsense.”
Hawk has been married four times and broke down the timeline for his multiple life events. The athlete wed first wife Cindy Dunbar in Fallbrook, California in 1990. Three years after his 1993 divorce from Dunbar, Hawk tied the knot with Erin Lee at the Hilton hotel in San Diego.
Following his 2004 split from Lee, Hawk moved on with Lhotse Merriam. The pair held their wedding ceremony at the Tavarua Surf Island in Fiji in 2006. After his 2011 divorce from Merriam, Hawk founded The One with wife Catherine Goodman. The couple got married at Adare Manor in Ireland in 2015. None of the locations Hawk listed were Little Saint James which was Epstein’s private estate in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Hawk claimed that the confusion came from one of the guests at his 2006 wedding to Merriam. One of the guests was allegedly a photographer named Mark Epstein. Jeffrey coincidentally has a brother named Mark, but Hawk claimed that his wedding guest has no relationship with the late financier’s family. (Epstein died by suicide at age 66 in August 2019 after being arrested on federal sex trafficking charges. He previously pleaded guilty to procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a minor in 2008, and served 13 months in prison.)
“One of the guests in 2006 shot photos of the Fiji ceremony and licensed them to Getty Images,” Hawk explained. “His name is [coincidentally] Mark Epstein. An accomplished action sports photographer from Wyoming and of no relation to Jeffrey Epstein (who I never met and whose island I never visited). This is all easily verifiable information. Facts are not fungible.”
Hawk concluded his message apologizing to his friend Mark for “the misinformation vortex.”
Former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates has chalked up his friendship with late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as a “huge mistake.” The New York Times reported that Gates began a friendship with the disgraced financier in 2011, which was three years after Epstein pleaded guilty to procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute. […]
After the United States Department of Justice released the Epstein files last month, rumors swirled that Hawk was involved after the skateboarder was mentioned in an October 2024 email from an FBI agent. The agent was investigating a case involving a minor being allegedly trafficked.
The email stated that the victim claimed that “she was taken from Ireland and brought to Jeffrey Epstein Island when she was 13 years old,” and “she was there when Prince Edward was there and when Tony Hawk got married on the island.”
Hawk was not the only star name dropped in the Epstein files. Many stars including Prince Andrew, J.K. Rowling, Bill Gates and more were mentioned in the legal documents. Gates, who previously spent time with Epstein while he was alive, broke his silence on his connection to the disgraced billionaire.
“Apparently, Jeffrey wrote an email to himself. That email was never sent,” Gates, 70, told 9 News Australia on Wednesday, February 4. “The email is false. I don’t know what his thinking was there. Was he trying to attack me in some way? Every minute I spent with him, I regret, and I apologize that I did that.”
If you or someone you know is a human trafficking victim, contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888.
