Virginia Giuffre: Who is she and what are her allegations against Prince Andrew? Where is she now?
Who is Virginia Giuffre?
Virginia Giuffre is an American woman, who filed a lawsuit, claiming that Jeffrey Epstein sexually abused her and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell trafficked her.
The 38-year-old was born Virginia Roberts in California, Sacramento in August 1983. Reports have said that she belonged to a "troubled home". She apparently later ran away and spent time living on the streets.
She met with Maxwell in 2000 at the age of 16 when she was engaged in a summer job as a spa attendant at former US President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida.
Giuffre says Maxwell offered her a job as a travelling masseuse for Epstein.
Giuffre connection with Epstein
Giuffre says Epstein, who killed himself in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges, sexually abused her from the very first massage at his Palm Beach mansion. He and Maxwell then began trafficking her to his wealthy friends, she alleges.
She told the 2020 Netflix documentary "Jeffrey Epstein, Filthy Rich" that she had been "like a slave" to them.
Epstein death came a day after a US judge ordered unsealed a legal document in which Giuffre named several high-profile personalities as perpetrators of sexual abuse against her. It included Andrew.
Later, Giuffre agreed to drop a sexual abuse lawsuit against Epstein for $500,000 in 2009. It purported to protect "other potential defendants" but US judge Lewis Kaplan has ruled it does not cover Andrew.
Giuffre settled a defamation suit against Maxwell for an undisclosed sum in 2017 and in 2019 sued celebrity lawyer Alan Dershowitz, who strongly denies her allegations that she was forced to have sex with him.
What are the accusations she made?
She sued Prince Andrew in August 2021, stating that she was sexually trafficked to Prince Andrew and he sexually assaulted her in 2001 when she was 17 and a minor under American law.
Her lawyers submitted a photo of her with Andrew and Maxwell as evidence.
Prince Andrew
The 62-year-old has been banished from royal life
Ghislaine Maxwell trial
Despite being Maxwell and Epstein's accuser, Giuffre was not part of the criminal case that saw Maxwell convicted on five counts of grooming and recruiting minors for Epstein last month.
Her name cropped up during the trial, though.
Flight logs mentioned during the trial revealed that Giuffre flew 32 times with Epstein between the late 1990s and early 2000s.
She says she first met Andrew on a Tangier to Luton flight in March 2001.
During testimony, one of the victims, "Carolyn," said she was 14 years old when Giuffre, a friend of hers, took her to meet Epstein.
"Virginia asked me if I wanted to make some money," said Carolyn, recalling that Giuffre told her she got $300 for each massage, which always ended in sex.
Giuffre said in the Netflix documentary that she "escalated up the ladder very quickly with Epstein."
"I did whatever he needed. Unfortunately, I didn't see my life getting any better, so I stayed," she said.
Carolyn told the Daily Mail recently that Giuffre had told her in 2001 that she had slept with Andrew.
Where is she now?
As per the latest information available in the public domain, Giuffre escaped Epstein's clutches in 2002 when she flew to Thailand to attend a massage training school. There she met her future husband Robert Giuffre. They live in Australia with their three children.
Last year, Giuffre founded "Speak Out, Act, Reclaim," a support group for victims of sex trafficking and sexual abuse.
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