Death of Prince Andrew Accuser ‘A Horrible Thing,’ Trump Says

Virginia Giuffre, who accused Prince Andrew of sexually assaulting her at a party held by Jeffrey Epstein, died of a probable suicide in Perth.

Virginia Roberts Giuffre gestures during an interview on the BBC Panorama program that aired on Dec. 2, 2019. BBC Panorama via AP

U.S. President Donald Trump has described the probable suicide of Virginia Giuffre as a “horrible thing.”

Giuffre, who accused Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein of sexual abuse, died by suicide in Perth, Western Australia, her family last weekend.

The president described it as “a very sad situation, the whole thing.”

“That whole situation is very sad—her and others. Certainly, that’s a horrible thing.”

Her death brings to an end a decades-long story which brought about the downfall of a prince and saw her recently claiming to have been in a near-fatal accident that had given her only days to live, but which later turned out to have been a minor collision with a bus.

Giuffre first came to public notice after an initial investigation of Epstein resulted in an 18-month sentence, most of which he avoided by making a secret deal that led to his early release.

She came forward publicly and accused both Epstein and Prince Andrew, the favourite son of the late Queen Elizabeth II, of sexually assaulting her.

In the civil lawsuits that followed, she claimed to have been employed as a spa attendant at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort while still a teenager, and was approached there in 2000 by Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

She was subsequently hired as a masseuse for Epstein and was flown around the world for meetings with men at his behest while she was 17 and 18.

It was at one such party in 2001 that she claimed she met and slept with Prince Andrew, who has always denied this and said he couldn’t recall ever meeting her. However, a now-notorious photograph of the pair together, with Maxwell in the background, appeared to disprove at least part of his account.

Prince Andrew Implicated

The prince eventually settled a lawsuit brought by Giuffre, who accused him of sexually assaulting her when she was 17, while maintaining his innocence of any wrongdoing. Although the figure has never been made public, estimates place it at around £12 million (US$16 million). At the insistence of the Queen, he also stepped away from all public duties as part of the Royal Family.

Her association with Epstein ended in 2003, when she turned 19. He paid for her to take a class in Thailand, aiming to become a professional masseuse. On that trip, she met Robert Giuffre, whom she eventually married. While both had been born in the United States, they moved to Australia together and went on to have three children.

In 2009, she filed an anonymous lawsuit against Epstein, in which she accused Maxwell of sexually trafficking her as a minor. This was settled for an undisclosed amount, and in 2011, she became the first of Epstein’s victims to waive her anonymity. Ten years later, she reemerged in the public eye, filing the lawsuit against Prince Andrew, which was settled the following year.

Little was then heard from her until this year, aside from her work as an advocate for survivors of sex trafficking. Reportedly, she had split from her husband and was in a custody battle for their children. She alleged that her husband had physically abused her during their time together, and also filed a family violence restraining order against her.

Claim of Imminent Death

A court date was set, but on March 31, Giuffre announced on Instagram that she had been involved in a high-speed traffic accident and was going to die.

She wrote that her car had been hit by a bus going at over 110 kilometres per hour (70 miles per hour), which had caused her to go into renal failure, giving her four days to live.

“I’ve gone into kidney renal failure, they’ve given me four days to live, transferring me to a specialist hospital in urology,” she wrote in the post.

“I’m ready to go, just not until I see my babies one last time, but you know what they say about wishes. Thank you all for being the wonderful people of the world and for being a great part of my life.”

However, West Australian Police said it had been a “minor crash.”

It is unclear when she was discharged from hospital, but according to her family, Giuffre took her own life at her own home in Neergabby on April 25. A Western Australia Police spokeswoman confirmed Giuffre’s death was under investigation, but did not appear to be suspicious.

In a statement, Giuffre’s family said that the “toll of abuse became unbearable,” adding that she “was a fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking.”