Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s interview with the BBC in which she, again, details her allegations against Prince Andrew was taped before Andrew’s interview aired last month. And yet, Giuffre’s straightforward interview seems be in direct response to the Duke of York’s own bumbling attempts to deflect his role in Jeffrey Epstein’s child sex trafficking allegations.
“This is not some sordid sex story. This is a story of being trafficked,” Giuffre told BBC. “This is a story of abuse, and this is a story of your guy’s royalty.”
Buckingham Palace has “emphatically” denied the allegations, calling them “false and without foundation.” Andrew also denied the allegations himself in his own interview with BBC.
Still, Andrew has withdrawn from public duties.
BBC Panorama, the network’s investigation show, reported a 2015 email from Andrew to Epstein’s friend Ghislaine Maxwell, who was Epstein’s entrance to British high society. (Maxwell is the one who brought Giuffre into Epstein’s world, she said, when Giuffre was working in Florida as a teen.)
Andrew emailed: “Let me know when we can talk. Got some specific questions to ask you about Virginia Roberts.”
Maxwell wrote back: “Have some info. Call me when you have a moment.”
Andrew previously denied meeting Giuffre, even as a photo of the two came out.
In the interview, Giuffre alleges that she was forced to have sex with Andrew when she was underage. She also detailed the night they met, including dancing at a London club where Andrew sweat so much it was “raining basically everywhere.”
After the nightclub, Giuffre said Maxwell gave her instructions on the drive. “In the car Ghislaine tells me that I have to do for Andrew what I do for Jeffrey and that just made me sick,” she said, adding, “I just didn’t expect it from royalty. I didn’t expect it from someone people look up to and admire.”
When everyone arrived at Maxwell’s home, Giuffre said she did was Maxwell told her, starting in the bath. “It didn’t last very long, the whole entire procedure. It was disgusting,” Giuffre said. “He wasn’t mean or anything, but he got up and said thanks and walked out. I sat there in bed just horrified and ashamed, felt dirty.”
Maxwell congratulated her on a job well done the next day, Giuffre alleged.
Giuffre described the time in her life as being metaphorically chained to the rich and famous. “It was a wicked time in my life, it was a really scary time in my life. I had just been abused by a member of the royal family,” she told the BBC. “So when you talk about these chains, yeah, I wasn’t chained to a sink but these powerful people were my chains. I couldn’t comprehend how in the highest levels in the government powerful people were allowing this to happen, not only allowing it to happen but participating in it.”