Prince Andrew looks at legal action against Virginia Giuffre
Prince Andrew’s lawyers are reportedly looking at their options in the hope they can overturn his US$20m out-of-court civil settlement.
Prince Andrew’s lawyers are reportedly looking at pursuing legal action against his accuser Virginia Giuffre in an attempt to overturn his US$20m out-of-court civil settlement.
The Sun newspaper reporters lawyers are looking at their options after Ms Giuffre recently admitted she may have made a mistake in identifying another Jeffrey Epstein associate, lawyer Alan Dershowitz. She dropped an eight-year legal claim against the former Harvard law professor in November last year.
Andrew’s lawyers are probing whether Ms Giuffre will retract her claims against the royal as well so that he can return to official duties.
It comes as Andrew’s close friend, convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell gave an interview to be aired this week, saying the infamous photograph of Andrew with his arm around Ms Giuffre “doesn’t appear to be real”.
Maxwell, serving 20 years for being part of Epstein’s abuse of young girls, spoke from a Florida jail to Jeremy Kyle on Talk TV: “It’s a fake, I don’t believe it is real for a second. I am sure it’s not. There has never been an original, further there is no photograph, I have only ever seen a photocopy of it.”
A year ago Andrew agreed to pay Ms Giuffre, 39, the large settlement to drop the civil action because constant headlines were damaging the monarchy just before the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations. At the time he strenuously denied any wrongdoing.
Soon after the deal was struck the late Queen sidelined Andrew from royal duties and stripped him of his military titles and charity associations.
Ms Giuffre said she was pimped by Epstein to have sex with Andrew on three occasions. She had provided the photograph of her and Andrew, and with Ms Maxwell smiling in the background, to a British photographer for the Mail on Sunday in February 2011. She had also given the photograph to the FBI.
Ms Giuffre, who now lives with her family in Perth, told Panorama in 2019: “I think the world is getting sick of ridiculous excuses. It’s a real photo. I’ve given it to the FBI for their investigation and it’s an authentic photo. There’s a date on the back of it from when it was printed.”. She also had an affidavit from a former boyfriend who had seen the photo back in 2001.
Andrew spoke about the photograph on BBC Newsnight in November 2019 saying he had no recollection of it photograph ever being taken and that it showed him in his “travellers’ clothes” which he wouldn’t have worn while in London.
Andrew told BBC Newsnight: “You can’t prove whether or not that photograph is faked because it’s a photograph of a photograph of a photograph. It’s very difficult to be able to prove it but I don’t remember that photograph being taken … That’s me but whether that’s my hand … I have simply no recollection of the photograph ever being taken.’’
One of Andrew’s friends, Lady Victoria Hervey has claimed the photograph was photoshopped using images taken from Naomi Campbell’s birthday party on a boat in May 2001 where Ms Giuffre is pictured in attendance wearing the same top and colourful jeans. However, Lady Victoria has not been able to provide a photograph of the supposed lifted image.
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