Victoria's Secret: Angels and Demons (2022–…): Season 1, Episode 3 - Tarnished Angels - full transcript

Roll tape. What is Victoria's Secret?

In three, two, one, go.

By 2018,
the Victoria's Secret way of doing things

was a 20-year-old force of habit.

And so, they were forced
to begin making changes.

And during the fashion show,
you could see it.

- It's empowering.
- Strong.

- Fierce, sexy.
- Iconic.

The notion that a model

shouting the word "fierce"

was gonna work was just ridiculous,



but it showed just how out of touch

the leadership
of Victoria's Secret had become.

They thought they could fool
a few more people

and talk about empowerment.

- Successful, confident women.

- Really powerful, young women.
- Be sexy for ourselves

and for who we wanna be,

not because a man says you have to be.

It was never about that
in the first place.

That whole
hypersexualization worked for a long time,

but there was a point where

the world at large moved on
from it and they didn't.

And they went from being valid
to invalid so fast.

The intriguing thing to me



is that as I get older and older,

staying in touch with what society,
young women want.

You have to keep flexibility
'cause the world changes

and you have to change with it.

The downfall of Victoria's Secret

really came from Les's inability,
in my opinion,

to see the success of fashion
through any lens other than his own.

He believed we were making
a movie with the brand,

but it was always very tilted to this
kind of Zeus, you know, like,

one person knows all things.

In fact, at some point after I had
already left, um, Victoria's Secret,

Les, evidently, said something
to the tune of,

"Am I the only one in the room
who knows what women want?"

It doesn't totally surprise me because

he was so egotistically strong
in his belief that this is what works,

that he wasn't open to it changing.

This morning, an ad for Victoria's Secret

undergarments is under fire.

"The Perfect Body," those three small
but powerful words, igniting outrage.

Over the years,

Victoria became something unattainable.

It was too sexy.
Like, it's not real anymore.

"I have to have a six-pack."
R-Ridiculous idea.

And that's when the disconnect started.

- This morning,
women's clothing company Lane Bryant

is chiming in on the conversation
about beauty and body image

with a new marketing campaign
called "I'm No Angel."

- I'm no angel.
- I'm no angel.

- I'm no angel...
- I'm no angel.

There were changes
that we were seeing happen

in competitive lingerie brands

in terms of body size,
in terms of diversity.

And it felt like a new era was dawning.

Declaring, "We're all angels,"

they're fighting back against
the iconic brand Victoria's Secret.

- When social media came in
and really changed the media landscape,

that's when the boat kind of started
to really, like, shake.

And the change was really fast-paced.

All of a sudden,
there was this outburst of,

"We don't wanna see Photoshop.
Like, we wanna see real women."

Brands like Aerie came out
with no retouching campaigns.

Brands like ThirdLove came out
and it was marketed more towards women

versus this man's fantasy sold to women.

- Real women don't have pillow fights
with each other every night.

You know, real women, I don't think,
sit around with their legs spread

and they're, like, posing at the camera.

And it came to a point in time
where women were like,

"No, I'm not really buying into this."

- A Victoria's Secret in Texas
banned a woman

from breastfeeding her son
in the lingerie store.

Apparently, they don't want
anyone to get the wrong idea

about what breasts are for.

- There's all these things
that they were saying

or doing, internally,
that were against the grain

of where the market seemed to be going,

but they were still at the top

because it takes time
for all of that to crumble.

I think technology
is going to aid retail, uh,

much more dramatically

than technology is just,
"You buy it online."

Les Wexner had been the king

of brick-and-mortar retail.

But every career ends at some point.

And in Wexner's case,
it ended when the meteor

of social media, online shopping,
Instagram, all of that

suddenly hit the fashion world
and reconfigured it as something else.

The social revolution happened so fast,

iPhones, and Instagram,
and online shopping.

These were kind of his blindsides.

It's kind of nuts to think that

a company that was so innovative

couldn't keep up with technology.

With the whole boom of the internet,

it's like a community
that's growing so fast.

It's the fact that you can
have your voice heard.

Digital media really democratized fashion.

Tavi Gevinson was
this 13-year-old blogger,

and all of a sudden, in 2010,

she was placed front row next
to Anna Wintour at a fashion show.

That was representative of
the shift in power in the industry.

So, from then on,

brands were more open
to the idea of digital media.

Victoria's Secret
started casting more models

that had a bigger social media following.

These young women,

you know,
they're brands in themselves,

and in many cases,
their followings totally dwarf

the followings of the brands
that are hiring them.

It gives these young models
an enormous amount of power.

Victoria's Secret
was definitely reaping the benefits,

but at the same time,
it kind of bit them in the butt

because the models could
speak on their own behalf

and not feel intimidated
by a bigger brand.

The traditional media isn't
controlling everything anymore.

People are letting these brands know
that we're ready for so much more

than they thought we were, as a society.

You can be fierce. You can be strong.

You are emissaries
of a very positive message

and you need to do that
and only you can do that.

I love you all.

Love you!

As I was brought more into this

inner circle world,

the culture just started
to feel heavy on me.

I remember being on set once

and Ed made the comment
that women only work out

to look good naked for men.

There was always this understanding
that, like, "That was just Ed."

You never knew what was
gonna come out of his mouth.

It was, like, a whole different
set of rules that he lived by.

In June of 2015, we were on set.

It's lunchtime and they set up a buffet.

I was going up to get more
and Ed physically stopped me,

like stepped in front of me,

and said,
"Are you really gonna go get more food?"

And I just kind of froze.

And he is like,

"I really don't know how you look
at yourself in the mirror in the morning."

I then walked to the bathroom
and I'm just... hot with humiliation.

I'm shaking.

It was so confusing, and hurtful,
and just, like, shocking

being bullied and harassed,

out of nowhere, in front of

the world's biggest supermodels.

I realized... this is not normal,

this should not be
an acceptable thing to happen,

but his behavior
was just so normalized.

Maybe a week later,

Monica Mitro puts up an elbow
on my cubicle wall and says,

"By the way, Casey,

Ed makes some really weird jokes
sometimes, doesn't he?"

It was pretty much that day I immediately
started looking for, for other jobs.

The aspect of leadership
that I find is most important

is that leaders lead
themselves effectively,

and clearly, leaders do take
their followers, their flock,

their enterprise, their business,
whatever, hopefully, to a better place.

Beginning in 2016,

Victoria's Secret's profitability

started its rather steep
and downward trend.

So... something happened in 2016

that should've gotten
somebody's attention.

This is what democracy looks like!

The MeToo movement,
the consciousness change

has been universal,

sudden, but really it was like
water building up behind a dam,

and the dam broke,

and there is no puttin' that dam
back together again.

When the Harvey Weinstein accusations

and the MeToo movement ramped up,

that was a signal.

Les... missed the change.

He didn't call it... correctly.

- Back in, uh, I guess it was
August or September of last year,

I had a meeting
with Harvey Weinstein at Miramax.

In fact, for the 2000 fashion show

that took place in Cannes,

Harvey Weinstein and Ed Razek

worked closely together.

Then, sometime after,

Harvey Weinstein personally showed up

in the New York offices

with a young woman in tow

wanting her to be made
a Victoria's Secret model.

And said he had been sent by Razek.

And the fact that Weinstein,
at the suggestion of Razek,

might show up trying to get
a young woman a job

is not only poor form, it's tasteless.

If there's some connection
between Epstein, Weinstein, Razek,

your business is going south,

wouldn't that lead you to say,
"What's going on here?"

Especially somebody like Les

who was so observant.

But that kind of behavior was indicative

of... other behavior at Victoria's Secret.

Suddenly, in 2018, you had Savage Fenty,

the brand run by

one of the world's biggest pop stars.

Companies like Rihanna's Savage X Fenty

are showing beautiful women
of all shapes and sizes.

I wanted people to feel that, that energy.

I want them to feel
all the different body types,

all the different women
in different stages of their womanhood,

and... it was fun.

When Rihanna put real women

out on the runway,

that was actually socially transformative.

People are spending money
after seeing inclusion.

They want to see the clothes
on their body type before they buy it.

Diversity isn't just pandering,
it's a smart business move,

and Rihanna's business is proof of that.

When people saw that,
they were like, "I now see myself."

I mean, then all of a sudden,

Victoria's Secret just looked
like a complete dinosaur.

In 2018,

I remember being
in an edit meeting at Vogue

and saying, "Let's do a story

about how Victoria's Secret
should change."

Ed Razek agreed to sit down
for an interview.

And so, I went into
the Victoria's Secret office.

Monica Mitro, who was the executive
VP of public relations was there.

There was also a PR person in the room.

I was essentially giving Ed and Monica

a chance to start rewriting
Victoria's Secret history.

Uh, does the brand
think about diversity? Yes.

Do we offer larger sizes? Yes.

- And we were discussing the disruptors

that were emerging and becoming
truly competitive for Victoria's Secret.

Everybody, uh, keeps
talking about Rihanna's show.

If we had done Rihanna's show,

we would be accused of pandering
without question.

Because why?

Because the brand has a specific image,

has a point of view, has a history.

- He discounted the brands
that were emerging

because of the changing culture.

We're nobody's ThirdLove.

We're their first love.

The morning
the Vogue article hit,

I woke up and I had
a bunch of text messages,

and people were like,
"Have you seen this article?"

I read the article
and my mouth fell to the floor.

I could not believe the things
that came out of his mouth.

We attempted to do
a television special for plus size.

No one had any interest in it,
still don't.

- I mentioned how we had started seeing
more transgender models in fashion.

"Why doesn't your show do this?"

"Shouldn't you have
transsexuals in the show?"

No, I don't think we should.
"Well, why not?"

I said, "Because the show is a fantasy."

I filed that story,

and my first feedback was,

"Wow, you've really let them
hang themselves."

And that is what Ed did.

While Razek later apologized,

his interview unleashed an angry response.

- As luck would have it,
we actually had drafted an open letter

to Victoria's Secret earlier in the year
that we ended up not publishing.

And when this happened,

it was an opportunity to offer
a clear alternative, and it worked.

ThirdLove says revenue has increased 300%

each of the last two years.

My article, and the sort of

media blitz that followed it,

and the uproar on social media

really sort of sealed the deal.

One of last night's performers, Halsey,

is making some headlines this morning.

She did respond
to the controversial comments

about transgender models,
which were made...

Model Karlie Kloss
telling Vogue magazine,

"I didn't feel it was an image that
was truly reflective of who I am

and the kind of message I want to send
to young women around the world."

Bella Hadid saying
she felt the most confident

during Rihanna's Savage Fenty show.

- When I first did Fenty,
I was doing other...

There's other lingerie shows,

and I never felt powerful on a runway,
like, in my underwear.

When those models

with their enormous platforms
started speaking out,

they wound up, you know,
in a, in a crisis point.

After two decades,

the Victoria's Secret
Fashion Show is over.

The company's saying
they plan to evolve the messaging

and cut back on costly marketing events.

L Brand's reported
over a $250 million loss last quarter.

Ratings for the show
have plummeted as well.

Last year's were the lowest
since they started televising it.

The company's sales also struggling.

It took almost a year for Ed to step down.

And I think what that told me

was just how important he was
to the brand and to Les.

At this point, they have
too much brand baggage

to recalibrate from.

Numbers were declining,

revenues were declining,
earnings were declining.

The stock peaked at $100.22

on November 2015.

And by the beginning of 2019,

the stock was trading at just over $26.

- A wealthy money manager whose friends
have included presidents and a prince

is behind bars in Manhattan tonight.

Jeffrey Epstein is accused
of sex trafficking

and molesting underage girls.

With Epstein's second arrest, this time,

it was... like a bomb exploded.

And so, everything around Jeffrey Epstein,
every association he had,

uh, was under the microscope now.

The L Brand's board of directors

has enlisted an outside firm
to conduct a review

of Jeffrey Epstein's role
at the retail company.

The company actually hired Davis Polk,

which was Abigail Wexner's
former law firm in, in New York

to do one of the investigations.

The implications are very cloudy,

but with the relationship between
Wexner and Epstein in the spotlight,

and the fact that Epstein claimed that
he was a Victoria's Secret recruiter,

the company was forced to distance itself

from any connection to Epstein.

And Wexner sort of posits that he had
no idea that any of this was going on,

and that years afore,

he had immediately cut ties

with Epstein after his first arrest,

where he did remove power of attorney,
but it took more than a year.

- Everyone has to feel,
uh, enormous regret,

uh, for the advantage,

uh, that was taken of, uh,
of so many young women.

And, uh, that's just unexplainable,
abhorrent behavior,

and, uh, clearly, uh, is something

we, we, we all, uh... would condemn.

A recently obtained investigation

paints a different picture for L Brands.

When Epstein was first arrested,

documents suggest that
L Brands directly aided

Epstein's legal defense in 2006.

One of his accusers happened
to have worked for Victoria's Secret,

and the L Brand's legal department

sent over employee records
regarding this accuser.

These records were not subpoenaed.

They were provided voluntarily
by L Brands, aiding Epstein.

This information was
never publicly reported.

After Epstein's second arrest,

everyone that has ever
been connected to this man

has done everything humanly possible
to distance themselves from him.

Ohio's richest man,

L Brands founder Les Wexner, says

disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein

mismanaged tens of millions
of Wexner's dollars.

In the wake of all these
terrible allegations,

Wexner talks about
his own betrayal by Epstein.

That, in fact,
Wexner himself is a victim.

Around, I guess it was January of 2019,

I got a tip

that I should look into
certain charitable funds

associated with Wexner,

and one of them happened to be a fund

called the YLK Fund.

Those are the initials
of Abigail's father,

Yehuda L. Koppel.

This fund was created

around the time
of Epstein's case in Florida,

and the president of the fund

was Les Wexner's wife, Abigail,

and the money was
$46-some-million put in there

by Epstein.

And it-it's jolting because
they're taking money from this guy

who's being convicted

of child abuse, basically.

Les claims that it was money
that was stolen from him

and was put back quietly
so that he wouldn't be embarrassed.

Wexner admitted that

Epstein stole money from him,

more than the $46.7 million.

And it was money that should have
been reported immediately.

Being taken advantage of

by someone who was, uh, so sick,

so cunning, uh, s-so depraved, um,

it's, uh, it's, it's something
that I'm embarrassed

that I was even close to.

Wexner is known as being litigious,

and yet, he won't pursue Epstein

for stealing millions
upon millions of dollars.

To allow that level of betrayal
and dishonesty to happen,

unpunished, um, is entirely unexplained.

Why didn't you sue him?

What's that all about?

I don't know. I... It just...

It just doesn't seem to add up to me.

Wexner has never specified

how much money he paid Jeffrey Epstein

during the time that
Epstein worked for him.

But in my reporting,

the best estimates
hover around $400 million.

Leslie Wexner was a protector

and seemed to be a facilitator
for Jeffrey Epstein

because he was
the money man behind Epstein.

And I also believe they had
a very complicated relationship

financially, personally,
and in many other ways.

No.

- What exactly was the relationship?

We know that it was
more than a financial adviser,

whether it was building his yacht,

project managing things for him,
like New Albany.

Being involved in his personal life
and his family in a way,

it seems pretty clear that
Epstein knew Wexner in a way

that very few other people did
and maybe no one else did.

I've heard rumors over the years

about Les's sexual orientation.

But here's the thing...
do we have anybody firsthand?

Do we have anybody secondhand who can say,
"Yes, I was involved with Les."

Do these people exist?

If they exist, I've never heard of them.
I'd never met them.

There are all these questions

about the relationship that

no one but Les Wexner
probably knows the answer to

because now Epstein's dead,
and so, he took that to his grave.

- Good morning.
This is an NBC News special report.

NBC News has learned that

disgraced financier
Jeffrey Epstein is dead.

Epstein took his own life while he
was behind bars here in New York...

The medical examiner
said that it was suicide.

There're a number of red flags.

I'm not generally a person who believes in

conspiracies unless they're proven,

but this should never have happened.

And there's so many questions
that need to be answered.

- The wound is down here.

You'd think if somebody hung themselves,

the wound would be maybe up here.
- Yeah. Yes.

Most hangings, the ligature slides up

to beneath the, the, uh,
jawbone, the mandible.

Here, it's in the middle of the neck.

And to add to it,
there was a total breakdown in security.

The video cameras didn't work,
the guards went to sleep.

An active federal agent told me

just days after he was arrested
on July 6th of 2019,

he said to me, on the phone,

"Conchita, Epstein
will not make it to trial."

I said, "What do you mean?"

And he said,
"Just listen to what I'm telling you,"

and he repeated his statement.

And of course, he didn't,
you know, he didn't elaborate.

So many victims
wanted to see him face justice.

They wanted their day in court.
They'll never have it.

And what that means is
they were denied the whole truth,

much of which could have
come out at his trial.

- Are these power players
a priority for us right now?

Can we even touch them?

- No, it's like everything, um.

You know, we, we...
It hides in plain sight.

Epstein was hiding in plain sight.

We all knew about him.

We all knew what he was doing,

but we had no one
that would go after him.

They were afraid of him.
For whatever reason, they were afraid...

- This is Cindy McCain,
the wife of John McCain,

admitting at a conference that
everyone knew what Epstein was up to.

And this is the wife of a former
Republican presidential candidate.

You know, that's hugely significant
to say that it was just known

and that powerful circles
did nothing about it.

And so, that directly undercuts
this whole narrative that, you know,

"Oh, it was just Epstein
and he conned everyone."

But this didn't get really any
mainstream coverage, um, at all.

- People need to understand
the fact that government,

the financial world,
specifically, the banking world,

have enabled Jeffrey Epstein's crimes.

Epstein was a collector of people.

Not only did he do
financial business with these places,

but he also used them
to bolster, uh, his own profile,

same way he did with Les Wexner.

As a guy who had never graduated college,

Jeffrey Epstein was correctly assuming
that if he gave enough money,

then he could wear
the Harvard sweater around no problem.

And he would get some of that sheen.

And he was absolutely right.
It worked flawlessly.

There's no question that in death,

Jeffrey Epstein now is continuing
to destroy the lives and the reputations

of many wealthy men.

Wall Street power broker Leon Black

is stepping down as CEO
of the giant investment...

Vanity Fair
dives into Epstein's relationship

with billionaire hedge fund manager
Glenn Dubin.

Barclays CEO
Jes Staley is stepping down,

this following an investigation...

Britain's Prince Andrew
says he is appalled

by recent sex abuse claims
about his former friend.

Former President Bill Clinton

reportedly took more than two dozen trips
on Epstein's private jet.

Controversy also put a spotlight

on President Trump's
relationship with Epstein.

New questions
are swirling around the state

of Bill and Melinda Gates' marriage.

One source of concern for Melinda

was Bill's dealings with convicted
sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

- Is there a lesson for you,
for anyone else looking, looking at this?

- Well, he's dead, so, uh,

you know, in general, you always
have to be careful, uh.

All of these men have claimed

that they were not aware
of Jeffrey Epstein's secret life

and that they were not
participants in that dark world.

This was not about some drug cartel

trafficking children
into the United States.

This was about a rich man,
who did not need money,

so why was he bringing children
from all over the world

and introducing them
to politicians and rich men?

Why was he doing this?

I believe that he needed them
for something uniquely different.

One, pleasure.

And two, power.

And that power came through blackmail.

And that's what these girls were to him.

They were a tool of blackmail. Period.

The earliest mention
of this infrastructure

being set up comes from
The New York Times in 1996,

talking about Epstein's mansion
that he got from Wexner,

where a lot of his notorious activities
were known to have taken place.

It describes this spy-style,
James Bond bathroom

connected to CCTV cameras
throughout the premises.

- Was there videotape?

- Oh, yeah, it was all videoed,
all the time. Yeah.

And, and I asked him one time,
"What do you do with this?"

And he said, "I keep it.
I keep everything in my safe."

- The government officials,
uh, the politicians, the royalty,

like, you know,
they were taping everybody.

Every moment... when you walked
in to, to the New York mansion,

to Palm Beach,
everything was being filmed.

There's still question to this day,

"Where is all of that material?"

Uh, has that material been hidden away?

There's an individual named
John Mark Dougan.

He's a former Palm Beach County
sheriff's officer

and he's told a story
that's straight out of a spy novel.

He claims the lead detective
on the case in Palm Beach, Florida,

turned over to John Mark Dougan 700 CDs

containing video evidence

involving men engaging
in sexual relations

with the, uh, young women
at Jeffrey Epstein's mansion.

Dougan claims that the, uh, authorities
have seen these videotapes.

What's interesting is that
John Mark Dougan escaped to Russia.

And you have to wonder,

has this played into Putin's world?

There's a photo of him and a man
who was in Putin's inner circle.

So, does Putin have something
on individuals in the U.S.

about any of this?

Now, John Mark Dougan
does categorically deny that.

No one has ever been able to establish

that Epstein, in fact,
did have recordings,

but all you need is the fear of exposure

for that kind of power to accrue to him.

I think Leslie Wexner,

because of his influence,
his money, and his power,

is able to operate in a way

that other people in Ohio
are not able to operate.

In the 1990s,

Les got some 747 cargo jets

and helped establish Rickenbacker Airport

as a thriving hub for international cargo.

1995, a company called

Southern Air Transport

relocates from Miami to Columbus, Ohio,

with the assistance of Les Wexner.

Southern Air Transport had been involved
and connected to Iran-Contra.

- Southern Air Transport
was owned by the CIA.

Now, it's a private company,

but its competitors still call it
the "CIA's favorite airline."

- Epstein himself boasted
that he had connections to the CIA.

Epstein visited the Clinton White House

17 times.

Twelve of those times
happened in 1994 alone,

the year before Les Wexner helps relocate

Southern Air Transport
from Miami to Columbus.

Now, what business might Jeffrey Epstein
have had at the Clinton White House?

We don't know. We may never know.

- Um, so.

So, so, so there has, there has
been reporting to that effect.

And, and let me say, um,

there's been reporting to a lot of effects
in, in, in this case,

uh, not just now, but over the years.
And...

Alexander Acosta

was the lawyer
for the Southern District in Miami

during Epstein's
slap on the wrist conviction.

- This is what the news is like now.

Acosta's always been able
to be a little vague

in his justifications for why
he did this agreement

to not prosecute Epstein.

A few years later,
Acosta claimed that

Jeffrey Epstein's, uh,
very mild sentencing

came as a result of higher ups

who told Acosta that, uh,
Epstein was connected to intelligence.

But there's yet
another level to this story.

Les Wexner and Jeffrey Epstein
operated in this inner world

of very, very wealthy men

who were staunch backers of Israel

and who are rumored to have
various connections to the Mossad.

In fact, Ghislaine Maxwell's father,
Robert Maxwell,

was said to have been
connected to the Mossad

through Israeli intelligence.

I remember post-9/11,

when Les came into the store,

he had a bulletproof vest on
and always had a lot of security with him.

We knew that he was
very involved in Israel.

That was what we were sort of told

why there was so much,
um, security for him then.

It was kind of a big deal,
but it was pretty regular.

Les was always
a huge pro-Israel endorser

and gave a, a great deal of money
to, uh, many charities

and through the Wexner Foundation.

- Epstein was always in the background,
moving money around on behalf of Wexner.

And Wexner's money was
the engine for organizations

which had enormous political influence.

In the 2000s,

The Wexner Foundation
paid a bunch of money

to come up with a communications strategy
related to the Iraq war

to, you know, win the hearts and minds
on behalf of Israel.

But at a certain point though,
you know, part of their involvement

is to be plugged into
this bigger political game

to make sure that
their preferred outcomes happen,

which makes you wonder how many
more layers there are to this world.

Where the story
of Les Wexner and Jeffrey Epstein

starts to feel even darker to me
is when you start to think about

what are the ideas that
these guys might've shared?

What are the beliefs
about the world, about humanity?

What did they hold in common?

I've been told that Wexner was

so egomaniacal

that he commissioned the creation
of an artificial intelligence bot.

Something like IBM's Watson,
only called Wexner,

to impart his timeless knowledge
of marketing and merchandizing.

And there's also this report

that Jeffrey Epstein sought out
the leading scientists

that he could buy access to

for his experiment
to artificially inseminate

dozens of women with his semen

in an effort to improve
the quality of the human race,

you know, with his genetic material.

Um, evidently, there were not many takers.

The idea of having a legacy
that lives on forever,

whether it's Epstein's master race
or Les Wexner's AI scheming,

you know, it all speaks to this very
scary, dark, ideological place

that our country's ruling class
and elites reside in,

and the rest of us are not
a part of their plan.

The Epstein scandal pulled back a curtain

and shone a light on at least
some of the secret behavior

of billionaires in our world.

And we were never
supposed to see any of it.

This is all a story that was meant
to be hidden and stay hidden.

- There are still so many
unanswered questions about Epstein,

the people who were around him,
and what exactly they were doing.

Wexner's secrecy
doesn't seem to have served him

nor Victoria's Secret.

In the wake of investigations

that are continuing to take place,

a lawsuit was filed in Delaware

on behalf of shareholders involving

Wexner's, uh, company.

According to a complaint filed by

a current L Brands shareholder,

Leslie Wexner created a culture
within his company

of misogyny, bullying, and harassment,

as well as ties to Jeffrey Epstein
and other egregious mismanagement.

- Victoria's Secret is doing
damage control tonight,

fighting back against accusations
of sexual harassment by a top executive.

In 2020, in this
New York Times piece,

we learned that employees and models

had actually lodged harassment claims

against Ed Razek back in 2018.

According to The Times,

Razek tried to kiss models
and asked them to sit on his lap.

Supermodel Bella Hadid
was reportedly subjected

to crude comments about her breasts.

The lawsuit says
that despite numerous complaints

made to the company's
human resources department,

neither Les Wexner
nor any member of the board

did anything about it.

Razek released
a statement calling the accusations

"categorically untrue, misconstrued,
or taken out of context."

The claims against Ed

and the Jeffrey Epstein relationship

all come to light in the press,

and together, it became a story
that you couldn't ignore.

It was a perfect storm
of problems for Les Wexner.

Things were falling apart.

By 2021,

Wexner's empire was reduced
to two companies:

Victoria's Secret, and Bath & Body Works.

Because of the controversies
surrounding it,

Victoria's Secret was dragging
L Brands' stock down.

In the case of L Brands,

change was needed.

It was so much pessimism,
at the time, about Victoria's Secret,

and so, we issued a plan
to improve shareholder value.

Our state's richest man
is officially retired.

Les Wexner was the longest-serving CEO

in S&P 500 history
with 56 years on the job.

- Must have been difficult for Les
to, to step down like that.

That's the kind, you know,
thoughtful side of me,

and then, on a business side,
I was like, "It's about time."

- Are you able to say why
you decided to step down?

Was it related to concerns
about culture within your company?

No, of course not.

- Or the fallout from Mr. Epstein?
- Thanks.

The only way for Victoria's Secret

to survive

is if they can appear to be a newborn,

not the product of Les Wexner,
or a product of The Limited,

or an offspring of Victoria's Secret,

but a whole new idea
for a whole new world.

Victoria's Secret
saying goodbye to its Angels.

The company is making a major shift
as it begins to rebrand,

aiming to be more inclusive.

- They're replacing the cat walkers
with woke-talkers.

The company is now signing

seven women with unique backgrounds,

including soccer star Megan Rapinoe

and transgender Brazilian model
Valentina Sampaio.

Will this rebranding work?

Will consumers return
to this giant retailer?

Or did they miss the boat
with being diverse and inclusive?

Victoria's Secret has replaced the Angels

with the VS Collective,

which is a group of women
that they selected

for their diversity
and for their activism.

- Now, you see Victoria's Secret
desperately, and really desperately,

I mean, you can see them sweat
trying to catch up.

- The transformation
that we have at Victoria's Secret

begins with the admission that
we got it wrong.

We lost relevance with the modern woman.

- Victoria's Secret attempting
what some are calling

one of the biggest brand transformations

in recent memory.

I'm glad Victoria's Secret woke up.

They had to.

Were they late to the table?
Absolutely.

It feels a little focus group-y.

Like it came out
of a think tank a little bit,

but it's a step forward.

With the change of management,

Victoria's Secret's
making really great strides

to change the brand into a women's brand
versus a man's brand sold to women.

They're featuring pregnant models.

They're featuring models who are older.

They're featuring models
with different body types,

which is exactly what
everybody wanted to see

in 2016, 2017, 2018.

- Sexy is obviously
something to be celebrated,

but it is broader

because a female consumer
is not just one thing, she's many.

It's hard for me to look
at Victoria's Secret the same way

after all of the allegations
that have come out.

I think they do have a lot of work to do

to prove that they... are changing.

But I guess only time will tell.

Is it reactive? Probably.

Should you do it... right?
Yeah, you should.

I mean, you know, so it's kind of like,
"What are the options?"

To get criticized for changing
or don't change?

Just because your branding is earth tones

and "feel good" messaging

doesn't mean that

you're actually believing in these things.

I personally feel like it's just
a good marketing campaign

and nothing else.

Today, a male is still
the leader of this organization

creating a woman-driven industry.

The fashion industry is

based on something that is not true.

I don't know how long
that illusion will last.

And I think the brands that will do well

is the ones that is coming
from true integrity.

The complex of magazines, manufacturers,

designers, models

is still going to exist,

but it's going to be very different.

The magazine brands don't matter.

Malls all across America, they're dying.

Social media has changed things,

but it's not the end of this change.

It's just the beginning.

How great that we have entered an era

where difference is beginning
to be celebrated.

But at the same time,

Instagram has totally created

this insane world of filters,

and the plastic surgeons
are racing to keep up

with whatever the trends of these filters
are making people look like.

If you look at influencers,

it's an extremely homogenous look.

Like, the lips, the pose, the hair,
the, the butt, the breasts.

I think that Victoria's Secret's...
legacy is very present there.

Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of the late

and disgraced media mogul Robert Maxwell,

has tonight been found guilty
of having helped her lover,

the financier Jeffrey Epstein,
sexually abuse teenage girls.

Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested in 2020

for her association with Epstein.

Now that she's been found guilty,

she could spend the rest
of her life in prison.

Um, Ghislaine Maxwell is in prison.

Do you feel that she's going
to turn in powerful men?

- I just wish her well, frankly.

The powerful, uber wealthy

people who were around Epstein

have reputations to protect,

and have been, up to this point,
sort of impenetrable.

They all have this,
this chink of vulnerability.

- An investigation is underway
in Paris after a close associate

of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein,

modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel,

was found dead this morning
in his prison cell.

- The family of Ghislaine Maxwell
says they're worried for her safety...

This is astounding to hear,

considering the fact that he died
exactly the same way Jeffrey Epstein did.

Epstein was just one person

operating within this network.

And if you look more at what
the power structure is

that enabled Epstein to do this,

this network is, essentially,
a business that's too big to fail,

sort of like the Wall Street banks
in the 2008 crisis

because of their reach
and the damage that would be done,

the same power structure.

If it was investigated
and, uh, brought into the forefront

of American public consciousness,

it would have, you know,
similarly huge ramifications.

The board of L Brands

conducted two investigations

into the business relationship
between Epstein and Wexner

and have made no public report.

If something was done that was illegal,

that needs to be reported.

I grew up near too many malls to count.

And if I were to go into a mall,

and I were to open up my wallet
and spend dollars on clothes as a kid,

you know, there's a good chance
that those dollars

were goin' to Les Wexner,
and, you know, axiomatically,

those dollars were goin'
to Jeffrey Epstein.

I think Wexner is going to be remembered

as an enormously visionary

and also incredibly flawed
and damaged person

in the history of American business.

The Epstein story has done
more damage to him

than anything else in his life.

Even as his legacy has been tarnished,

he's still amassing wealth

and still one of the most
powerful billionaires in the country.

I remember... my dad said,

"You have a lot of ability,

"much more than I ever thought you had.

You have real ability
and just be careful how you use it."