Virginia Giuffre, Prince Andrew accuser, dies by suicide aged 41
Virginia Giuffre, one of Jeffrey Epstein’s most high-profile victims who accused Prince Andrew of sexually assaulting her as a teenager, has died by suicide, her family has said.
Ms Giuffre, 41, died in Neergabby, Australia, where she lived.
In a statement, her family said: “It is with utterly broken hearts that we announce that Virginia passed away last night at her farm in Western Australia. She lost her life to suicide, after being a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking.
“Virginia was a fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking. She was the light that lifted so many survivors. Despite all the adversity she faced in her life, she shone so bright. She will be missed beyond measure.
“The light of her life were her children Christian, Noah, and Emily. It was when she held her newborn daughter in her arms that Virginia realised she had to fight back against those who had abused her and so many others.
“There are no words that can express the grave loss we feel today with the passing of our sweet Virginia. She was heroic and will always be remembered for her incredible courage and loving spirit.
“In the end, the toll of abuse is so heavy that it became unbearable for Virginia to handle its weight. We know that she is with the angels.”
Ms Giuffre spent decades speaking out about the abuse she allegedly suffered from Epstein.
In 2021, she filed a lawsuit accusing the Duke of York of raping her when she was 17 after Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, his accomplice, allegedly trafficked her to London.
Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison for sex trafficking in 2021.
A year later, Ms Giuffre agreed to an out-of-court settlement with Prince Andrew, understood to be worth millions of pounds. The joint statement contained no admission of liability.
Prince Andrew denies any wrongdoing.
Those denials backfired during a November 2019 interview with the BBC. Prince Andrew attracted ridicule for disputing Ms Giuffre’s memory of him sweating, claiming he had a medical condition that prevented him from perspiring, and criticism for appearing to show little empathy for Epstein’s victims.
Days later, he stepped down from his royal duties.
Epstein died by suicide while awaiting trial in 2019 in a New York jail.
Troubling posts on social media
Her death was announced weeks after Ms Giuffre made a series of troubling posts on social media.
Earlier this month, she posted pictures of herself on Instagram with bruises on her face, claiming she had days to live.
“I’ve gone into kidney renal failure, they’ve given me four days to live,” she wrote.
Her spokesman said that she was in a “serious condition” after her car was hit by a school bus.
Ms Giuffre was accused of breaching a family violence restraining order 10 days before the alleged crash.
Local police said there had been a collision between a car and a bus on March 24, but there were “no injuries reported as a result”.
The mother of three was reported to have separated from her husband before the incident.
Thrown back into the public eye
Ms Giuffre has said she was abused by a family friend during her childhood and ended up living on the streets as a teenager. It was at that point she met Maxwell.
The allegations came back into the public eye recently when Pam Bondi, the US Attorney General, released a string of files related to the case.
Although the releases ultimately revealed little new information, intense speculation about their contents reportedly caused anxiety and stress among Epstein’s victims.
Friends and associates described Ms Giuffre as a fighter.
Ms Giuffre leaves three children, Christian, Noah and Emily, who were “the light of her life”, her family said.
Danny Wilson, her brother, told NBC News: “She was in real physical pain – suffered from renal failure. But I think that the mental pain was worse.”