(AFP) – A memoir by one of Jeffrey Epstein’s main accusers whose claims led to the downfall of Britain’s Prince Andrew was released Tuesday, promising to keep Epstein’s ties to President Donald Trump in the spotlight. While Trump features minimally in Virginia Giuffre’s book, pre-publication publicity has refocused attention on the Epstein saga in the United States where a row rages over the release of files on the disgraced financier and sex offender.
Andrew on Friday renounced his royal title under pressure from King Charles III, following further revelations about his ties to Epstein and repeated allegations in Giuffre’s book that she was forced to have sex with the prince three times, including when she was 17. The ghostwriter of “Nobody’s Girl,” Amy Wallace, said that Giuffre — who died by suicide in April aged 41 — told the Washington Post that the prominent campaigner against sexual abuse had admired Trump.
“She was a huge Trump fan… There were two reasons for it: One, she’d met him. She worked at Mar-a-Lago. Her dad worked at Mar-a-Lago. She met Trump several times, and he was always very kind to her,” Wallace told the Post. “And secondly, he said he was going to release the Epstein files. He was on her side. That’s how she felt.”
The BBC reported that in the book Giuffre alleges three sexual encounters with Andrew — one of which she claims was an orgy including Epstein, the prince and “eight other young girls.” The so-called Epstein files have been the focal point of the controversy engulfing the second presidency of Trump, who was a longtime friend of Epstein. In 2019 Epstein took his own life while in prison awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.
Giuffre was recruited into Epstein’s alleged sex-trafficking network when she was a 17-year-old minor while working at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in 2000, saying in the book she feared she would “die a sex slave.” Giuffre claimed she was approached there by Ghislaine Maxwell, who was later jailed in 2022 for helping Epstein sexually abuse girls. Trump appeared to be on good terms with Epstein during this time, praising him as a “terrific guy” in a 2002 New York Magazine profile.
In the book, Giuffre recounts being introduced to Trump by her father, with the property developer asking her “do you babysit at all.” “Soon I was making money a few nights a week, minding the children of the elite,” she said in an excerpt published by Vanity Fair.
The publication of a now-infamous photo taken in London appearing to show Prince Andrew with his arm around Giuffre’s waist set in motion the former military helicopter pilot’s downfall. Andrew, 65, has long denied the assault accusations, which have caused considerable embarrassment to the British monarchy and seen the prince virtually banished from royal life in recent years.
Prince Andrew reached a financial settlement with Giuffre in 2022. “The hope was that once the book was published for the first time since 2011, she could say: ‘I respect your wish to know my memories of Prince Andrew, Ghislaine, Jeffrey, etc., all the other men. I respect that need. I have done the best version of my story,'” Wallace said.
© 2024 AFP
