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At 16, Lisa Phillips knew she wanted a career in front of the camera.

From a seed planted at beauty pageants as a teenager, to elite fashion and TV campaigns in her early 20s, becoming a top model and actress grew to be her biggest dream.

That changed when, at 21, a trip to Jeffrey Epstein's private island altered the course of her life forever.

Only now, in her early 40s, has Lisa chosen to speak out about what happened to her on the island with Epstein, the American financier and convicted sex offender.

Watch: The new photos of Andrew in the Epstein Files. Post continues below.

The words she'll never forget.

"I will never forget hearing the words: 'Jeffrey is ready for his massage'," Lisa told Mamamia. 

Now, Lisa is on a mission to speak out alongside her fellow survivors about predatory power and the darker side of the modelling industry in order to protect young women and girls.

Growing up with a father who worked in the Air Force, Lisa found herself moving from country to country, which only further inspired her towards becoming a successful international model.

Determined to learn the 'ins and outs' of the modelling industry, Lisa was building her portfolio after consistently doing well in modelling contests.

But the industry wasn't always as glamorous as she first imagined.

"So, I observed pretty early on the power dynamic in the industry, between models and those around them. As a model, your body was never really yours,"Lisa explained.

"There's really never any agency or autonomy over your own body. That was just always the way it was. No matter if you were a top model or not, you were still looked at as a sex object."

"You were the main point of every production, but you also had the least respect," she continued.

While living in New York, Lisa was booked for a modelling job. After days of back-to-back shooting, with, finally, a free day off, an acquaintance invited Lisa to meet a man she described as, "a mentor who helped build her career," Lisa explained.

That man was Jeffery Epstein.

The first night on the island.

They travelled by boat to Epstein's private island, Little St James.

As they stepped onto the island, Lisa spotted an older man in the pool with some younger, blonde women.

Familiar with the modelling lifestyle, for Lisa, it wasn't unusual to see older men hanging out with younger women on the social scene, so she thought nothing of it.

After a relaxing day by the pool, Lisa and her friend were invited to dinner by Epstein, joined by the two young women she had seen in the pool earlier.

"Jeffrey spoke to me one-on-one at dinner for hours, asking me so many questions about my life, my relationship with my family, and my ambitions," Lisa recalled.

"I felt comfortable. He was charming, charismatic; he took notice of me."

'I had no way of escaping.'

Later that evening, Lisa and her acquaintance were shown to their room, where they would spend the night relaxing.

Lisa says that not long after they settled in, a young woman knocked at the door and said Epstein was "ready" for his massage. 

"I was, like, 'What massage? What's going on? I don't want to massage somebody,'" Lisa said.

"I had just met this man, but I felt very comfortable with him from the hours before. So I didn't really think about it."

"I just knew I had to do this massage," she continued. "So I went. I wasn't thinking anything horrific was going to happen. But, you know, I was on an island. I had no way of escaping.

"Honestly, I thought I would go to Jeffrey's room, give him a massage, and leave."

Lisa says she was led to Epstein's room, where he was waiting naked on a massage table. The door closed behind her, and, becoming increasingly uncomfortable, Lisa says she was ushered towards Jeffrey. 

Suddenly, Lisa says she felt trapped and unable to refuse.

The next morning, Lisa says she was left feeling scared and confused.

She explained: "I thought to myself: 'I've just been assaulted. I've just been sexually assaulted!'"

After returning to New York, Lisa says she told no one what had happened. 

The phone call from Epstein.

Over the following months, Lisa says she was contacted multiple times by one of Epstein's employees.

"I sensed he was hoping I wouldn't get away, that I wouldn't talk about what had happened on the island," Lisa said.

"Jeffrey always wanted to keep you in his orbit. Eventually, I was exhausted. Jeffrey called me directly and I answered."

Lisa describes the following years as marked by coercion and psychological manipulation.

"Jeffrey remembers every dream and ambition of each girl and woman he met. For four years, he had power over me," Lisa said.

"We trusted him. This was a man who has the power to ruin your career and your life in an instant. You had to keep silent, and you didn't really know how to get out of it.

"For years, I was too scared to say no to Jeffrey, until I had had enough."

As the years went on, Lisa says she was pulled into a much larger system of manipulation and abuse.

It wasn't until a series of events empowered Lisa to confront Epstein.

'I knew something horrible had happened.'

"I found out that he was doing really awful things. I knew something horrible had happened to my girlfriend, I knew these claims against Jeffrey Epstein were true from my own experience," Lisa said.

Visiting Epstein's seven-story Upper East Side townhouse in New York City, Lisa says she confronted Jeffrey and his reaction was terrifying. 

The next day, shocked and desperate, Lisa packed up her belongings and drove across the country to start a new life in Los Angeles. She had finally escaped Jeffrey Epstein.

Despite leaving her New York life behind, Lisa's career in the modelling and entertainment industry continued to thrive and went from strength to strength.

As her life progressed, it brought her back to New York in 2012, as a newly single mum, with three sons in tow. Lisa set up her own modelling scouting start-up, working with the biggest fashion brands in the business, and thrived as a solo-parent.

A well-recognised name in the modelling and media world, Lisa was unstoppable in her efforts to become a successful businesswoman.

And she succeeded, but her past trauma remained firmly behind her.

Until the news that Jeffrey Epstein had been found dead in a New York prison cell on August 10, 2019, hit worldwide coverage. His death, ruled as suicide, occurred as he awaited, without the chance of bail, his trial on sex trafficking charges.

'Everything shifted.'

It came more than a decade after his conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor, for which he was a registered sex offender.

"The moment Jeffrey died, everything shifted," Lisa said.

"When I saw Virginia Giuffre, in 2020, speak out publicly about her abuse at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, I knew she was telling the truth."

"Originally, I never set out to share my story. I wanted to support Virginia, her legacy, and the stories of other survivors," Lisa added.

Years on, Lisa, through her relentless pursuit of the truth, has become one of the leading campaigners seeking justice following the release of the Epstein files.

This follows The Epstein Files Transparency Act that requires the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to publicly release unclassified files, records, and imagery related to convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.  

Listen: A federal judge has unsealed an alleged suicide note written by Jeffrey Epstein, marking the first time the document has been made public. Post continues below.

Laura Richards, an expert Criminal Behaviour Analyst, explained what motivates people like Epstein.

 "[They] are motivated by control, power, and dominance, and they see everybody on the planet as there to be used by those who dominate or be dominated," she said.

"They have a superior sense of self, and they feel utterly entitled, so with that comes a fearless dominance; a brazenness, and that's very attractive to people because it often is interpreted as being confident.

"Epstein surrounded himself with Ivy League universities, very important world leaders, business people, and officials, and this was also part of the grooming process, as Lisa Phillips and others experienced."

'Shame is a powerful tool.'

Over the years, Lisa has continued to battle and reconcile her feelings of shame.

"I always had this thought that shame made things around me out of my control and out of my power," she said.

"Shame is a powerful tool that people use to make others feel worthless. But survivors need to understand they're not worthless. 

"Survivors are actually very powerful when we've gone through these types of experiences. And shame is something that doesn't ever belong to us."

Lisa's definition of justice raises a broader question: what does real accountability and closure look like for the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and those connected to him?

"Justice isn't just about putting men behind bars, because that's going to be very difficult," she said.

"Justice is about awareness. Justice is what I'm doing — this is justice to me.

"Justice happens when I'm hosting my podcast, From Now On when a guest tells me their story. Justice isn't only highlighting the abuser, but highlighting the education and awareness around the abuse. For me, this is a huge part of justice."

Listen to Lisa's podcast, From Now On, here. 

Follow Lisa's campaign and advocacy work on her Instagram here . 

If you or anyone you know needs to speak with an expert, please contact 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) — the National Sexual Assault, domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service.

Feature Image: Supplied.