In her posthumously printed memoir, Virginia Roberts Giuffre shares a private account of the story that made headlines worldwide: her accusations towards Prince Andrew and years of alleged trafficking by Jeffrey Epstein.
“No one’s Woman: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Preventing for Justice” was launched on Tuesday. Guiffre died by suicide earlier this 12 months.
Listed here are some key takeaways from the guide:
Extra particulars about Prince Andrew
Giuffre’s guide alleges that she had intercourse with Prince Andrew thrice, together with when she was 17, after being trafficked by Epstein. One time, she stated, was a part of an orgy involving round eight different ladies.
“The opposite ladies all appeared and gave the impression to be underneath the age of eighteen and did not actually converse English,” Giuffre stated.
She stated that, as her authorized case progressed, Andrew made it troublesome for her authorized workforce to serve him papers by “fleeing to Queen Elizabeth’s Balmoral Fortress in Scotland and hiding behind its well-guarded gates.” Andrew denied her allegations.
However a turning level got here with Andrew’s November 2019 interview on the BBC program Newsnight. He was widely criticized for seeming to lack empathy when requested concerning the accusations, and Giuffre says the interview “was like an injection of jet gas” for her authorized workforce.
“Its contents wouldn’t solely assist us construct an ironclad case towards the prince but in addition open the door to probably subpoenaing his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, and their daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie,” Giuffre wrote.
She stated her settlement negotiations with Andrew started to maneuver rapidly after he employed American lawyer Andrew Brettler, who had labored with different public figures dealing with #MeToo allegations.
Brettler “was much less reluctant than a few of his British counterparts to face actuality,” Giuffre wrote.
Giuffre stated she and her workforce had been asking for greater than cash as a part of the settlement: They wished an acknowledgement of what Giuffre had been via.
“After casting doubt on my credibility for thus lengthy — Prince Andrew’s workforce had even gone as far as to attempt to rent web trolls to problem me — the Duke of York owed me a significant apology as nicely. We might by no means get a confession, after all.”
The settlement was announced on Feb. 15, 2022, and Prince Andrew and Giuffre issued a joint assertion which made clear he would pay Giuffre cash, however did not specify the quantity. It additionally stated he would make a “substantial donation” in assist of victims’ rights to Giuffre’s nonprofit group. Andrew didn’t admit wrongdoing however stated in court docket paperwork that he “regrets his affiliation with Epstein.”
“I agreed to a one-year gag order, which appeared necessary to the prince as a result of it ensured that his mom’s Platinum Jubilee wouldn’t be tarnished any greater than it already had been,” Giuffre wrote.
Final week, forward of the publication of Giuffre’s memoir, Prince Andrew introduced he would no longer use his Duke of York title, after already having stepped back from royal duties in 2019.
Mar-a-Lago and a gathering with Trump
Earlier than she first encountered Gislaine Maxwell and was introduced into Epstein’s world, in 2000, Giuffre labored at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, alongside her father, who was a upkeep man chargeable for the air-con items in lodge rooms, in addition to the clay tennis courts.
“I bear in mind he gave me a short tour earlier than presenting me to the hiring supervisor who — after I handed each a drug take a look at and a polygraph — agreed to take me on,” Giuffre wrote. She stated she met Mr. Trump a number of days after beginning work on the resort.
“They weren’t mates precisely. However Dad labored onerous, and Trump appreciated that,” Giuffre stated.
When she met Mr. Trump in his workplace, she stated he “could not have been friendlier, telling me it was implausible I used to be there.”
He additionally requested if she babysat, Guiffre wrote, mentioning households with youngsters who stayed in his properties close by.
But it surely was additionally at Mar-a-Lago that Giuffre stated she first met Ghislaine Maxwell.
“One steaming scorching day some weeks earlier than my seventeenth birthday, I used to be strolling towards the Mar-a-Lago spa, on my option to work, when a automotive slowed behind me. I want I might say that I sensed that one thing evil was monitoring me, however as I headed into the constructing, I had no inkling of the hazard I used to be in,” Giuffre stated.
Maxwell jumped out of the automotive and launched herself to Giuffre.
“I want I might say that I noticed via Maxwell’s polished facade — that, like a horse, I intuited the immense risk she posed to me. As an alternative, my first impression of Maxwell was the identical one I fashioned after I greeted any well-heeled Mar-a-Lago visitor. I might be fortunate, I assumed, if I might develop as much as be something like her.”
Maxwell was convicted in 2021 on federal costs together with intercourse trafficking conspiracy, and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Epstein died in jail in 2019 after his arrest on intercourse trafficking costs.
Mr. Trump has denied information of Epstein and Maxwell’s actions.
Giuffre’s message to the world
Giuffre writes about how the abuse she was subjected to affected her and the way she devoted herself to standing up those that harmed her and supporting others to do the identical.
“Do not be fooled by these in Epstein’s circle who say they did not know what Epstein was doing,” Guiffre stated on the finish of the guide. “Anybody who spent any vital period of time with Epstein noticed him touching ladies in methods you would not need a creepy previous man touching your daughter. They will say they did not know he was raping youngsters. However they weren’t blind. (To not point out the truth that many outstanding individuals had been nonetheless associating with him years after).”
Although it was troublesome, Guiffre stated she was glad she had labored to share her story.
“I do not remorse it, however the fixed telling and retelling has been extraordinarily painful and exhausting,” she stated.
Guiffre leaves readers with this message:
“I hope my story has moved you — to hunt methods to free your self from a nasty state of affairs, say, to face up for another person in want, or to easily reframe the way you choose victims of sexual abuse. Every considered one of us could make optimistic change. I really consider that. I hope for a world by which predators are punished, not protected; victims are handled with compassion, not shamed; and highly effective individuals face the identical penalties as anybody else. I yearn, too, for a world by which perpetrators face extra disgrace than their victims do and the place anybody who’s been trafficked can confront their abusers when they’re prepared, regardless of how a lot time has handed. We do not dwell on this world but. … If this guide strikes us even an inch nearer to a actuality like that — if it helps only one individual — I’ll have achieved my objective.”
