FUGITIVE socialite Ghislaine Maxwell has been hiding out in a sprawling Paris apartment close to Jeffrey Epstein's $8.6million pedo pad, we can reveal.

Maxwell, one of the world's most wanted women, fled to France, where she was born, to avoid questioning in the US by the FBI over her links to the late disgraced billionaire.

The 58-year-old, who vanished from public life in 2016, moved into her secret bolthole on Avenue Matignon, in Paris's exclusive 8th Arrondissement, to remain undetected.

The luxurious property is linked to a millionaire business contact based in Normandy who offered to let her use it while the global hunt for her continued.

And it is only a five-minute drive along the Champs ­Elysees to Epstein's vast apartment on Avenue Foch, which was raided by French cops last September.

Maxwell, who is a long-term friend of the Duke of York, was spotted on Avenue Matignon in the days before France announced its Covid-19 lockdown in March.