Virginia Giuffre, who accused Britain’s Prince Andrew of sexual abuse and was one of the distinguished victims of Jeffrey Epstein, has died. She was 41.
Her publicist and household confirmed she died by suicide at her farm in Western Australia on Friday.
“Virginia was a fierce warrior within the battle in opposition to sexual abuse and intercourse trafficking. She was the sunshine that lifted so many survivors,” her household mentioned in a press release. “Regardless of all the adversity she faced in her life, she shone so vibrant. She might be missed past measure.”
Her publicist Dini von Mueffling described Giuffre as “deeply loving, smart and humorous.”
“She adored her youngsters and plenty of animals. She was at all times extra involved with me than with herself,” von Mueffling wrote in a press release. “I’ll miss her past phrases. It was the privilege of a lifetime to signify her.”
The American-born Giuffre, who lived in Australia for years, turned an advocate for intercourse trafficking survivors after rising as a central figure in Epstein’s extended downfall.
FILE – Virginia Roberts Giuffre, a sexual assault sufferer, speaks throughout a press convention outdoors a Manhattan court docket the place sexual victims, on invitation of a choose, addressed a listening to after the accused Jeffrey Epstein killed himself earlier than dealing with intercourse trafficking prices, Tuesday Aug. 27, 2019, in New York.
The Related Press
Giuffre sued Prince Andrew in 2021, accusing him of forcing her to have intercourse on the London house of Ghislaine Maxwell, a longtime Epstein affiliate, when she was 17.
She additionally accused Andrew of abusing her at Epstein’s mansion in Manhattan, and on considered one of Epstein’s non-public islands within the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Get breaking Nationwide information
For information impacting Canada and world wide, join breaking information alerts delivered on to you after they occur.
The 2 reached an out-of-court settlement in Feb. 2022, for an unspecified quantity. Earlier than a settlement was reached, Andrew renounced his military titles and patronages, returning them to Queen Elizabeth II, in response to public backlash from the lawsuit and his relationship with Epstein.
The 65-year-old prince, the queen’s second son, has denied Giuffre’s accusations.
Epstein, a convicted sex offender, was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges in 2019, involving dozens of teenage women and younger girls, some as younger as 14.
The costs got here 14 years after police in Palm Seashore, Fla., first started investigating allegations that he sexually abused underage women who had been employed to provide him massages.
Giuffre got here ahead publicly after the preliminary investigation resulted in an 18-month Florida jail time period for Epstein, who made a secret deal to keep away from federal prosecution by pleading responsible as a substitute to comparatively minor state-level prices of soliciting prostitution. He was launched in 2009.
A photograph exhibiting Prince Andrew and Virginia Giuffre collectively.
U.S. Second Circuit Court docket of Appeals
Epstein was discovered lifeless in his cell at a Manhattan jail, months after his arrest. His demise was dominated a suicide, which put an finish to his accusers’ hopes of holding him criminally accountable.
Maxwell was convicted in 2021 on federal intercourse trafficking and conspiracy prices and was sentenced to twenty years in jail. She mentioned she wasn’t guilty for Epstein’s abuse.
Prosecutors elected to not embrace Giuffre’s allegations within the Maxwell case, however Giuffre later advised the court docket that the British socialite had “opened the door to hell.”
Giuffre, born Virginia Roberts, advised interviewers that her childhood was shattered when she was sexually abused as a grade-schooler by a person her household knew. She later ran away from house and endured extra abuse, she mentioned.
Final month, Giuffre’s publicist confirmed her shopper was hospitalized after a serious accident. Giuffre posted to Instagram that she had been in a automotive hit by a college bus and that she solely had a few days to live.
She is survived by her three youngsters, whom the assertion described because the “mild of her life.”
Sigrid McCawley, an lawyer for Giuffre, mentioned in a press release, “Her braveness pushed me to battle tougher, and her power was awe-inspiring. The world has misplaced a tremendous human being at the moment. Relaxation in peace, my candy angel.”
— With information from The Related Press
In case you or somebody you already know is in disaster and wishes assist, sources can be found. In case of an emergency, please name 911 for speedy assist.
For a listing of help providers in your space, go to the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention.
Learn more about how to help someone in crisis.
© 2025 World Information, a division of Corus Leisure Inc.
Source link