Virginia Giuffre has been ‘vindicated’, her family have said, after an email from Ghislaine Maxwell confirmed the infamous photo with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is real.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor had long disputed the authenticity of the image of him in intimate contact with Virginia Giuffre when she was just 17.
And his suggestion that the damning 2001 picture may have been faked was central to the defence he tried to put over in his disastrous Newsnight interview.
But yesterday, the Daily Mail revealed an email from sex offender Maxwell stated ‘for the record as fact’ that she had not just introduced Andrew to Ms Giuffre, but the image was taken in her home that same night. The former prince has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
Sky Roberts, Ms Giuffre’s brother, told BBC Newsnight that the correspondence ‘truly does vindicate’ his sister.
‘It shows that not only was she not lying this entire time, even though many people across multiple countries indicated that she was.’
He added: ‘She was telling the truth, not only did Ghislaine mention that the photo was real, but that it was in the same house that Virginia had mentioned.
‘It’s a moment where we are really proud of our sister, it is a vindicating moment, but we also want to use this as a moment to remind people to believe survivors.’
Meanwhile, her sister-in-law, Amanda Roberts, tearfully explained how they had experienced a ‘whirlwind’ amid the release of a trove of documents known as the Epstein Files by the US Department of Justice (DOJ).
‘I’ve felt like a moment of such overwhelming emotion because I wish she was here to see this, she fought so hard and so long and she was still so strong,’ she said while noting how ‘greatly’ Ms Giuffre was missed by her family ‘in this moment’.
The family also said in a statement to the broadcaster that they hoped that Andrew would ‘face criminal charges’.
Maxwell’s recent admission, unearthed by this newspaper, will come as a major blow to Andrew, leaving his controversial Pizza Express ‘alibi’ in tatters.
It was made in a series of 2015 emails released in a tranche of more than three million Jeffrey Epstein-related documents by the US Department of Justice last week.
Drafting a statement intended to hit back at reports of mounting allegations in the press, disgraced socialite Maxwell had sent Epstein an email asking for his approval.
‘In 2001 I was in London when (redacted) met a number of friends of mine including Prince Andrew,’ she wrote.
‘A photograph was taken as I imagine she wanted to show it to friends and family.
‘I never asked (redacted) to give him a massage,’ her draft statement added.
In the body of the email, she said: ‘I am stating for the record as fact’ before adding: ‘Prince Andrew came to my house to visit me – (redacted) was in the house and they did meet.’
However, she claimed she had ‘no knowledge’ of Ms Giuffre ‘having sexual activity’ with Andrew or any other ‘famous people’.
Epstein replied saying her statement left ‘too many unanswered questions’ adding: ‘Her and andrew?…whats the deal here? why is she there.’
Maxwell insisted that she needs the statement ‘asap’ and that she was advised to say ‘I was not aware of massage w/andrew in my house’.
‘These thing they have to stay, along w/meeting virginia and rebutting those allegations. I needs it asap.’
In the email headed ‘first draft privledged joint defense agreement’, Maxwell claims she was compelled to speak out due to the ‘salacious claims’ against her.
She says: ‘The allegations made against me by (redacted) are lies. I have consistently stated that they are untrue and I have waited for an opportunity to prove this in a court of law.’
Seeking to discredit Giuffre, who took her own life aged 41 last year, Maxwell stated: ‘The salacious claims she makes are untrue and made purely for financial gain.’
‘The relentless media harassment to which I, Alan Dershowitz and Prince Andrew have been subjected to over the last week has become intolerable and breaches any justifiable sense of natural justice.’
She claims she plans to refer ‘both the harassment and the unfair and untrue allegations’ to the Press Complaints Commission immediately.
Maxwell, who was jailed for 20 years, for her role in luring underage girls for her former boyfriend Epstein, said she found the allegations against her ‘deeply hurtful’.
She concludes the statement saying: ‘Finally (redacted) claims she was a sex slave for the rich and famous, however the reality is that working as a waitress in a burger bar.’
The emails were written days after Ms Giuffre first launched her bombshell legal claim in the US in January 2015 accusing Maxwell of recruiting her as a ‘sex slave’.
Allegations that she was forced to have sex with the former prince were central to her case.
The correspondence directly contradicts repeated denials about the meeting in London ever taking place, with both Andrew and Maxwell trying to cast doubt over the image’s authenticity.
In a statement yesterday Virginia Giuffre’s family said: ‘Our sister Virginia Roberts Giuffre is vindicated again. The DOJ released this email from Ghislaine Maxwell in which she admits that she introduced Virginia to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and that the infamous photo of them is real and was taken in her flat.
‘We reiterate that Virginia was a truth teller. Despite the death threats and smear campaigns against her, Virginia never wavered. She remembered what she had experienced and by whom, documented it, and reported it to the authorities. Four of the abusers she named are now in prison, dead, or have become pariahs. We are hopeful that Andrew will face criminal charges.
‘We would like to note that in the new Epstein files that the DOJ released last week, there is a sworn deposition from Virginia made in a lawsuit. DOJ did not redact the names of most of the abusers Virginia named, and we wish to make sure that this is known. We are hopeful that more of her abusers’ names will be released in future Epstein files from the DOJ and/or Epstein’s estate.
‘We will not rest until the whole truth is out and Virginia’s abusers have been held accountable.’
In Andrew’s disastrous 2019 Newsnight interview, he famously claimed he was not at Maxwell’s home but at a Pizza Express in Woking.
‘I was with the children, and I’d taken Beatrice to a Pizza Express in Woking for a party at, I suppose, sort of 4pm or 5pm in the afternoon,’ he said.
When asked why he would remember a meal at Pizza Express 18 years later, he said: ‘Because going to Pizza Express in Woking is an unusual thing for me to do, a very unusual thing for me to do…
‘I’ve only been to Woking a couple of times and I remember it weirdly distinctly,’ he claimed.
Andrew and his allies have long sought to cast doubt over the authenticity of the image, which shows him holding Ms Giuffre, then 17 and known as Virginia Roberts.
Despite claiming they never met, the former duke paid Ms Giuffre millions to settle a civil sexual assault claim in 2022.
Maxwell, too, dismissed the image as fake in an interview from prison, while those close to Andrew insisted his fingers were ‘chubbier’ and he was taller than depicted.
The convicted associate of paedophile Epstein also claimed in interviews with the US DoJ that she had no recollection of the pair meeting in her home.
The picture was unearthed by The Mail on Sunday as Ms Giuffre insisted she slept with Andrew in London – a claim the disgraced ex-prince has vehemently denied.
Ms Giuffre said convicted paedophile Epstein took the photograph on a disposable camera before the group went to dinner and then Tramp nightclub.
She claimed she was forced to have sex with Andrew that night at Maxwell’s house as well as at Epstein’s home in Manhattan and on his private Caribbean island of Little St James.
The latest revelations will heap fresh humiliation on Andrew’s embarrassing ties to Epstein – links that have already seen him stripped of his titles.
In addition, he and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, have been forced out of the Royal Lodge on the Windsor estate, where they have lived for more than two decades.
