Virginia Giuffre claims Prince Andrew’s team tried to hire internet trolls to target her after she made allegations that the royal had “raped and battered” her, according to her bombshell memoir.
In her posthumous book Nobody’s Girl, due to be released on Tuesday, Giuffre claimed Andrew and his team attempted to “cast doubt on my credibility” after she spoke out about alleged abuse at the hands of paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein and his then girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.
The latest revelations come after the Metropolitan Police said it is “actively” looking into claims that Andrew passed her date of birth and social security number to his bodyguard in a bid to dig up dirt for a smear campaign.
Andrew, who has always vehemently denied any wrongdoing, reached a financial settlement with Giuffre in 2022. He relinquished use of his Duke of York title on Friday, but pressure is growing on the royal family to back a move to formally strip Andrew of his dukedom through parliamentary legislation.
The book gives detailed accounts of three separate occasions when Giuffre, who died by suicide aged 41 this year, said she had sex with Andrew. The first occasion took place at Maxwell’s London home in March 2001, when the infamous picture of the pair was taken by Epstein at her own request as a memento for her mother, she wrote.
In the memoir, Giuffre reveals difficulties she and her legal team faced in lodging the civil sexual assault case, launched in August 2021, in which she wrote that she “alleged Prince Andrew had raped and battered me when I was a minor, causing me severe and lasting damage”.
She claimed Andrew’s legal team did not respond to a letter and that, when action was launched, papers could not be served on him because of his “fleeing to Queen Elizabeth’s Balmoral Castle in Scotland and hiding behind its well-guarded gates”.
However, after a US judge accused Andrew of playing “hide and seek” and Giuffre’s legal team got a “break” when a witness came forward to say she had seen Giuffre and Andrew together at Tramp nightclub in London, the case progressed, she wrote.
But in her memoir, Giuffre claimed Andrew’s team tried to hire internet trolls to target her online.
“After casting doubt on my credibility for so long – Prince Andrew’s team had even gone so far as to try to hire internet trolls to hassle me – the Duke of York owed me a meaningful apology as well,” she wrote.
Andrew’s legal team did reach an out-of-court settlement, reported to be millions, saying he had “never intended to malign Giuffre’s character” and he recognised she had “suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks”.
The legal case, Giuffre wrote, was helped by Andrew’s interview with Emily Maitlis on Newsnight, in which he denied knowing if he had met her, while claiming to have taken his daughter, Princess Beatrice, to Pizza Express in Woking on the night they allegedly first met.
“As devastating as this interview was for Prince Andrew, for my legal team it was like an injection of jet fuel,” she wrote.
In the book, Giuffre accused Andrew of being “entitled – as if he believed having sex with me was his birthright”. She said she was paid $15,000 for “serving the man the tabloids called ‘Randy Andy’”.
Giuffre also recounted how the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, left her scared, amid unproven claims the royal family was involved.
She said she “hadn’t wanted to have sex with the prince, but felt I had to,” saying she believed there was no way to free herself from Epstein and Maxwell’s grip and that she knew she “needed to keep Epstein and Maxwell happy”.
She claimed she and Andrew had sex again a month later at Epstein’s house in New York, and then at Epstein’s private Caribbean island, where she said they were involved in an orgy with around eight other girls.
In the memoirs, Giuffre also revealed the personal toll of sharing her allegations, which were first reported on by tabloids, without naming Andrew, in 2011. “I understand what I didn’t then,” she said. “That taking money from a tabloid publication for an interview or for use of a photo discredits the story even if it’s entirely accurate.”
Reflecting on her legal battles with Epstein and Andrew, she wrote in her memoir: “I don’t regret it, but the constant telling and retelling has been extremely painful and exhausting. With this book, I seek to free myself from my past.”
The titles and honours Andrew will no longer use include his wedding day titles – Duke of York, the Earl of Inverness and Baron Killyleag – his knighthood as a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO), and his garter role as a Royal Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter.
Formally stripping him of the title would require an act of parliament, but King Charles is believed to view the largely symbolic move as a waste of parliamentary time, and the government has said it will be guided by the royal family’s views.
Meanwhile, on the family’s official website, Prince Andrew’s Duke of York title has been deleted and replaced with solely “Prince Andrew”.
Buckingham Palace and Prince Andrew have been approached for comment.
Rape Crisis offers support for those affected by rape and sexual abuse. You can call them on 0808 802 9999 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, and 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland, or visit their website at rapecrisis.org.uk. If you are in the US, you can call Rainn on 800-656-HOPE (4673)
If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch
If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call or text 988, or visit 988lifeline.org to access online chat from the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you are in another country, you can go to befrienders.org to find a helpline near you
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