New Delhi, Feb. 26 -- Stephen Hawking, the theoretical physicist, was photographed smiling broadly beside two women holding what looked like colorful cocktails in an image obtained by the Daily Mail on Tuesday. Like many of the Jeffrey Epstein files released by the Department of Justice (DOJ), the photo did not include any details about when or where it was taken.

The scientist's family alleged those bikini-clad women with him were Hawking's long-term carers, adding that he posed for the picture after delivering a speech on quantum cosmology at a scientific symposium.

The photo was taken in 2006 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel on the Caribbean island of St. Thomas, a representative of Hawking's estate informed the British tabloid.

Epstein wa...