Virginia Giuffre, who accused Britain’s Prince Andrew and different influential males of sexually exploiting her as an adolescent trafficked by financier Jeffrey Epstein, has died. She was 41.
Giuffre died by suicide Friday at her farm in Western Australia, her publicist confirmed.
“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 an announcement. “Regardless of all of the adversity she confronted in her life, she shone so vivid. She will probably be missed past measure.”
Her publicist Dini von Mueffling described Giuffre as “deeply loving, smart and humorous.”
“She adored her kids and lots of animals. She was at all times extra involved with me than with herself,” von Mueffling wrote in an announcement. “I’ll miss her past phrases. It was the privilege of a lifetime to symbolize her.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story consists of dialogue of suicide. Should you or somebody you recognize wants assist, the nationwide suicide and disaster lifeline in Australia is offered by calling 13 11 14. Within the U.S., it’s accessible by calling or texting 988. There’s additionally an internet chat at 988lifeline.org
PHOTOS: Celebrity deaths in 2025: The famous faces we’ve lost
The American-born Giuffre, who lived in Australia for years, turned an advocate for intercourse trafficking survivors after rising as a central determine in Epstein’s extended downfall.
The rich, well-connected New York cash supervisor killed himself in August 2019 whereas awaiting trial on U.S. federal intercourse trafficking fees involving dozens of teenage women and younger girls, some as younger as 14. The costs got here 14 years after police in Palm Seashore, Florida, first started investigating allegations that he sexually abused underage women who have been employed to present 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 an alternative to comparatively minor state-level fees of soliciting prostitution. He was launched in 2009.
In subsequent lawsuits, Giuffre mentioned she was a teenage spa attendant at Mar-a-Lago – President Donald Trump’s Palm Seashore membership – when she was approached in 2000 by Epstein’s girlfriend and later worker, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Giuffre mentioned Maxwell employed her as a masseuse for Epstein, however the couple successfully made her a sexual servant, pressuring her into gratifying not solely Epstein however his mates and associates. Giuffre mentioned she was flown all over the world for assignations with males together with Prince Andrew whereas she was 17 and 18.
The lads denied it and assailed Giuffre’s credibility. She acknowledged altering some key particulars of her account, together with the age at which she first met Epstein.
However many components of her story have been supported by paperwork, witness testimony and photographs – together with considered one of her and Andrew, with his his arm round her naked midriff, in Maxwell’s London townhouse.
Giuffre mentioned in considered one of her lawsuits that she had intercourse with the royal 3 times: in London throughout her 2001 journey, at Epstein’s New York mansion when she was 17 and within the Virgin Islands when she was 18.
“Ghislaine mentioned, ‘I need you to do for him what you do for Epstein,’” Giuffre advised NBC Information’ “Dateline” in September 2019.
Andrew categorically rejected Giuffre’s allegations and mentioned he didn’t recall having met her.
His denials blew up in his face throughout a November 2019 BBC interview. Viewers noticed a prince who proffered curious rebuttals – corresponding to disputing Giuffre’s recollection of sweaty dancing by saying he was medically incapable of perspiring – and confirmed no empathy for the ladies who mentioned Epstein abused them.
Inside days of the interview, Andrew stepped down from his royal duties. He settled with Giuffre in 2022 for an undisclosed sum, agreeing to make a “substantial donation” to her survivors’ group. An announcement filed in court docket mentioned that the prince acknowledged Epstein was a intercourse trafficker and Giuffre “a longtime sufferer of abuse.”
She additionally filed, and in at the very least some circumstances settled, lawsuits in opposition to Epstein and others related to him. In a single case, she dropped her claims in opposition to a distinguished U.S. lawyer, saying she may need erred in figuring out him as one of many males to whom Epstein equipped her.
Epstein’s suicide put an finish to his accusers’ hopes of holding him criminally accountable.
Maxwell was convicted in 2021 on federal intercourse trafficking and conspiracy fees and was sentenced to twenty years in jail. She mentioned she wasn’t in charge for Epstein’s abuse.
Prosecutors elected to not embody 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.
She mentioned she met her now-husband in 2002 whereas taking therapeutic massage coaching in Thailand at Epstein’s behest. She married, moved to Australia and had a household.
Giuffre based an advocacy charity, SOAR, in 2015.
Giuffre separated from her husband and youngsters this yr. She had been charged with breaching a household violence restraining order over an incident in February, and was set to apepar in court docket in June within the metropolis of Perth, the place her estranged husband and youngsters reside.
She had but to enter a plea to the cost. A conviction would have carried a possible most sentence of two years in jail.
Giuffre was hospitalized after a critical accident, her publicist mentioned final month. She didn’t reply questions on the time concerning the date, location, nature or different specifics of the accident and concerning the accuracy of an Instagram publish that appeared to return from Giuffre. The publish mentioned she had been in a automotive that was hit by a college bus and her prognosis was dire.
She is survived by her three kids, whom the assertion described because the “gentle of her life.”
Sigrid McCawley, an lawyer for Giuffre, mentioned in an announcement, “Her braveness pushed me to battle tougher, and her energy was awe-inspiring. The world has misplaced a tremendous human being in the present day. Relaxation in peace, my candy angel.”
The AP doesn’t establish individuals who say they have been victims of sexual assault except they’ve come ahead publicly.
___
Related Press author Rod McGuirk in Melbourne, Australia, contributed to this report.
