Virginia Giuffre, who accused Britain's Prince Andrew in Epstein sex
trafficking scandal, has died
[April 26, 2025]
By JENNIFER PELTZ and HALLIE GOLDEN
Virginia Giuffre, who accused Britain's Prince Andrew and other
influential men of sexually exploiting her as a teenager trafficked by
financier Jeffrey Epstein, has died. She was 41.
Giuffre died by suicide Friday at her farm in Western Australia, her
publicist confirmed.
“Virginia was a fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex
trafficking. She was the light that lifted so many survivors,” her
family said in a statement. “Despite all the adversity she faced in her
life, she shone so bright. She will be missed beyond measure.”
Her publicist Dini von Mueffling described Giuffre as “deeply loving,
wise and funny."
“She adored her children and many animals. She was always more concerned
with me than with herself," von Mueffling wrote in a statement. "I will
miss her beyond words. It was the privilege of a lifetime to represent
her.”
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or
someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in
Australia is available by calling 13 11 14. In the U.S., it is available
by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at
988lifeline.org
The American-born Giuffre, who lived in Australia for years, became an
advocate for sex trafficking survivors after emerging as a central
figure in Epstein's prolonged downfall.

The wealthy, well-connected New York money manager killed himself in
August 2019 while awaiting trial on U.S. federal sex trafficking charges
involving dozens of teenage girls and young women, some as young as 14.
The charges came 14 years after police in Palm Beach, Florida, first
began investigating allegations that he sexually abused underage girls
who were hired to give him massages.
Giuffre came forward publicly after the initial investigation ended in
an 18-month Florida jail term for Epstein, who made a secret deal to
avoid federal prosecution by pleading guilty instead to relatively minor
state-level charges of soliciting prostitution. He was released in 2009.
In subsequent lawsuits, Giuffre said she was a teenage spa attendant at
Mar-a-Lago — President Donald Trump's Palm Beach club — when she was
approached in 2000 by Epstein's girlfriend and later employee, Ghislaine
Maxwell.
Giuffre said Maxwell hired her as a masseuse for Epstein, but the couple
effectively made her a sexual servant, pressuring her into gratifying
not only Epstein but his friends and associates. Giuffre said she was
flown around the world for assignations with men including Prince Andrew
while she was 17 and 18.
The men denied it and assailed Giuffre's credibility. She acknowledged
changing some key details of her account, including the age at which she
first met Epstein.
But many parts of her story were supported by documents, witness
testimony and photos — including one of her and Andrew, with his his arm
around her bare midriff, in Maxwell’s London townhouse.
Giuffre said in one of her lawsuits that she had sex with the royal
three times: in London during her 2001 trip, at Epstein’s New York
mansion when she was 17 and in the Virgin Islands when she was 18.
“Ghislaine said, ‘I want you to do for him what you do for Epstein,’”
Giuffre told NBC News’ “Dateline” in September 2019.
Andrew categorically rejected Giuffre’s allegations and said he didn't
recall having met her.

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Virginia Giuffre speaks during a news conference outside a Manhattan
court in New York, Aug. 27, 2019. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)

His denials blew up in his face during a November 2019 BBC interview.
Viewers saw a prince who proffered curious rebuttals — such as disputing
Giuffre's recollection of sweaty dancing by saying he was medically
incapable of perspiring — and showed no empathy for the women who said
Epstein abused them.
Within days of the interview, Andrew stepped down from his royal duties.
He settled with Giuffre in 2022 for an undisclosed sum, agreeing to make
a “substantial donation” to her survivors' organization. A statement
filed in court said that the prince acknowledged Epstein was a sex
trafficker and Giuffre “an established victim of abuse.”
She also filed, and in at least some cases settled, lawsuits against
Epstein and others connected to him. In one case, she dropped her claims
against a prominent U.S. attorney, saying she might have erred in
identifying him as one of the men to whom Epstein supplied her.
Epstein's suicide put an end to his accusers' hopes of holding him
criminally accountable.
Maxwell was convicted in 2021 on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy
charges and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. She said she wasn’t to
blame for Epstein’s abuse.
Prosecutors elected not to include Giuffre's allegations in the Maxwell
case, but Giuffre later told the court that the British socialite had
"opened the door to hell.”
Giuffre, born Virginia Roberts, told interviewers that her childhood was
shattered when she was sexually abused as a grade-schooler by a man her
family knew. She later ran away from home and endured more abuse, she
said.

She said she met her now-husband in 2002 while taking massage training
in Thailand at Epstein's behest. She married, moved to Australia and had
a family.
Giuffre founded an advocacy charity, SOAR, in 2015.
Giuffre separated from her husband and children this year. She had been
charged with breaching a family violence restraining order over an
incident in February, and was set to apepar in court in June in the city
of Perth, where her estranged husband and children live.
She had yet to enter a plea to the charge. A conviction would have
carried a potential maximum sentence of two years in prison.
Giuffre was hospitalized after a serious accident, her publicist said
last month. She didn’t answer questions at the time about the date,
location, nature or other specifics of the accident and about the
accuracy of an Instagram post that appeared to come from Giuffre. The
post said she had been in a car that was hit by a school bus and her
prognosis was dire.
She is survived by her three children, whom the statement described as
the “light of her life.”
Sigrid McCawley, an attorney for Giuffre, said in a statement, “Her
courage pushed me to fight harder, and her strength was awe-inspiring.
The world has lost an amazing human being today. Rest in peace, my sweet
angel.”
The AP does not identify people who say they were victims of sexual
assault unless they have come forward publicly.
___
Associated Press writer Rod McGuirk in Melbourne, Australia, contributed
to this report.
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