What Is True?

Online claims misleadingly link Ghislaine Maxwell to McGraw-Hill textbooks

Molly Gill • March 16, 2026

The Roy Howard Community Journalism Center’s “What is True?” team investigated viral social media posts claiming that Ghislaine Maxwell’s father, Robert Maxwell, owned the textbook publishing company McGraw-Hill.

Verdict: The claim is misleading.

Robert Maxwell’s company, Macmillan Inc., did have a joint publishing venture with McGraw-Hill in the early 90s. However, Maxwell himself died just two years after signing the agreement.

With growing scrutiny over the Epstein files, social media users began pointing to old connections between Robert Maxwell and McGraw-Hill. Some posts clarified that the connection was old and no longer ongoing. Other viral posts, however, went so far as to falsely claim that Robert Maxwell was the founder of McGraw-Hill and that he was part of a nefarious attempt to monopolize the U.S. textbook industry. (Examples: 1, 2)

A McGraw-Hill textbook on a classroom desk next to a screenshot of a social media post claiming Robert Maxwell was connected to the publisher. — A McGraw-Hill textbook sits on a desk in an empty classroom. In the corner of the image is a screenshot of a social media post claiming Ghislaine Maxwell’s father, Robert Maxwell, was involved with the publisher. (RHCJC News)

Ownership history

According to USA Today, Robert Maxwell’s company, Macmillan Inc., signed a joint publishing venture with McGraw-Hill in 1989. Reports from the New York Times said the two companies formed what was, at the time, the second-largest textbook publisher.

Just two years later, in 1991, Robert Maxwell died after falling from his yacht in the Canary Islands. After his death, the New York Times reported that McGraw-Hill bought Macmillan’s shares to become the sole owner.

In 2021, McGraw-Hill announced that Platinum Equity had acquired the publisher for approximately $4.5 billion. 

State of the company today

McGraw-Hill does not have a monopoly on textbook manufacturing.

According to SPARC, McGraw-Hill was supposed to merge with the publisher Cengage in 2019. However, the merger never happened due to a heavy judgment issued against it by the U.S. Department of Justice. The merger would have brought together the second- and third-largest education publishers into a single company. Altogether, they would have controlled 45% of textbook sales in the United States.

The United States is not ranked the lowest country for education as many of the posts about the textbook company would insinuate. According to the Austin American Statesman, the United States ranks eighth out of 41 countries for citizens having at least a secondary or high school education. Regarding performance, the United States scored 13th in science and 6th in reading. While the U.S. did score lower on math, coming in at 28th, the United States is still not the lowest country ranked for education.