Connect with us

Virginia

Virginia Giuffre’s memoir details Prince Andrew allegations, a friendly meeting with Trump, and more. Here are some takeaways.

Published

on

Virginia Giuffre’s memoir details Prince Andrew allegations, a friendly meeting with Trump, and more. Here are some takeaways.


In her posthumously published memoir, Virginia Roberts Giuffre shares a personal account of the story that made headlines worldwide: her accusations against Prince Andrew and years of alleged trafficking by Jeffrey Epstein.

“Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice” was released on Tuesday. Guiffre died by suicide earlier this year.

Here are some key takeaways from the book:

More details about Prince Andrew

Giuffre’s book alleges that she had sex with Prince Andrew three times, including when she was 17, after being trafficked by Epstein. One time, she said, was part of an orgy involving around eight other girls.

Advertisement

“The other girls all seemed and appeared to be under the age of eighteen and didn’t really speak English,” Giuffre said.

She said that, as her legal case progressed, Andrew made it difficult for her legal team to serve him papers by “fleeing to Queen Elizabeth’s Balmoral Castle in Scotland and hiding behind its well-guarded gates.” Andrew denied her allegations.

But a turning point came with Andrew’s November 2019 interview on the BBC program Newsnight. He was widely criticized for seeming to lack empathy when asked about the accusations, and Giuffre says the interview “was like an injection of jet fuel” for her legal team.

“Its contents would not only help us build an ironclad case against the prince but also open the door to potentially subpoenaing his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, and their daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie,” Giuffre wrote.

She said her settlement negotiations with Andrew began to move quickly after he hired American lawyer Andrew Brettler, who had worked with other public figures facing #MeToo allegations.

Advertisement

Brettler “was less reluctant than some of his British counterparts to face reality,” Giuffre wrote.

Giuffre said she and her team were asking for more than money as part of the settlement: They wanted an acknowledgement of what Giuffre had been through.

“After casting doubt on my credibility for so long — Prince Andrew’s team had even gone so far as to try to hire internet trolls to hassle me — the Duke of York owed me a meaningful apology as well. We would never get a confession, of course.”

The settlement was announced on Feb. 15, 2022, and Prince Andrew and Giuffre issued a joint statement which made clear he would pay Giuffre money, but didn’t specify the amount. It also said he would make a “substantial donation” in support of victims’ rights to Giuffre’s nonprofit organization. Andrew did not admit wrongdoing but said in court documents that he “regrets his association with Epstein.”

“I agreed to a one-year gag order, which seemed important to the prince because it ensured that his mother’s Platinum Jubilee would not be tarnished any more than it already had been,” Giuffre wrote.

Advertisement

Last week, ahead of the publication of Giuffre’s memoir, Prince Andrew announced he would no longer use his Duke of York title, after already having stepped back from royal duties in 2019.

Mar-a-Lago and a meeting with Trump

Before she first encountered Gislaine Maxwell and was brought into Epstein’s world, in 2000, Giuffre worked at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, alongside her father, who was a maintenance man responsible for the air conditioning units in hotel rooms, as well as the clay tennis courts.

“I remember he gave me a brief tour before presenting me to the hiring manager who — after I passed both a drug test and a polygraph — agreed to take me on,” Giuffre wrote. She said she met Mr. Trump a few days after starting work at the resort.

“They weren’t friends exactly. But Dad worked hard, and Trump liked that,” Giuffre said.

When she met Mr. Trump in his office, she said he “couldn’t have been friendlier, telling me it was fantastic I was there.”

Advertisement

He also asked if she babysat, Guiffre wrote, mentioning families with children who stayed in his properties nearby.

But it was also at Mar-a-Lago that Giuffre said she first met Ghislaine Maxwell.

“One steaming hot day some weeks before my seventeenth birthday, I was walking toward the Mar-a-Lago spa, on my way to work, when a car slowed behind me. I wish I could say that I sensed that something evil was tracking me, but as I headed into the building, I had no inkling of the danger I was in,” Giuffre said.

Maxwell jumped out of the car and introduced herself to Giuffre.

“I wish I could say that I saw through Maxwell’s polished facade — that, like a horse, I intuited the immense threat she posed to me. Instead, my first impression of Maxwell was the same one I formed when I greeted any well-heeled Mar-a-Lago guest. I’d be lucky, I thought, if I could grow up to be anything like her.”

Advertisement

Maxwell was convicted in 2021 on federal charges including sex trafficking conspiracy, and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Epstein died in jail in 2019 after his arrest on sex trafficking charges.

Mr. Trump has denied knowledge of Epstein and Maxwell’s activities.

Giuffre’s message to the world

Giuffre writes about how the abuse she was subjected to affected her and how she dedicated herself to standing up those who harmed her and supporting others to do the same.

“Don’t be fooled by those in Epstein’s circle who say they didn’t know what Epstein was doing,” Guiffre said at the end of the book. “Anyone who spent any significant amount of time with Epstein saw him touching girls in ways you wouldn’t want a creepy old man touching your daughter. They can say they didn’t know he was raping children. But they were not blind. (Not to mention the fact that many prominent people were still associating with him years after).”

Though it was difficult, Guiffre said she was glad she had worked to share her story.

Advertisement

“I don’t regret it, but the constant telling and retelling has been extremely painful and exhausting,” she said.

Guiffre leaves readers with this message:

“I hope my story has moved you — to seek ways to free yourself from a bad situation, say, to stand up for someone else in need, or to simply reframe how you judge victims of sexual abuse. Each one of us can make positive change. I truly believe that. I hope for a world in which predators are punished, not protected; victims are treated with compassion, not shamed; and powerful people face the same consequences as anyone else. I yearn, too, for a world in which perpetrators face more shame than their victims do and where anyone who’s been trafficked can confront their abusers when they are ready, no matter how much time has passed. We don’t live in this world yet. …  If this book moves us even an inch closer to a reality like that — if it helps just one person — I will have achieved my goal.”



Source link

Virginia

Women’s Lacrosse vs Virginia on 3/8/2026 – Box Score – Florida State University

Published

on

Women’s Lacrosse vs Virginia on 3/8/2026 – Box Score – Florida State University


VIRGINIA: Gabby Laverghetta (4), Kate Galica (3), Fiona Allen (3), Livy Laverghetta (1), Jenna Dinardo (1), Jayden Piraino (1), Cady Flaherty (1), Payton Sfreddo (1)
FSU: Lydia Ward (2), Brooke Long (2), Summer Harrell (1), Meg Kenny (1), Amelia Brite (1)



Source link

Continue Reading

Virginia

Man wanted in North Carolina murder investigation arrested in Grayson County, Virginia

Published

on

Man wanted in North Carolina murder investigation arrested in Grayson County, Virginia


A man wanted in a North Carolina murder investigation was arrested in Grayson County, Virginia, on Friday, authorities said.

53-year-old Matthew Jared Vukmer was taken into custody without incident around 5:30 p.m. in the Little River section of the county, according to the Grayson County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies say that on Friday, around 2:30 p.m., a call came in from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina about a suspect wanted for first-degree murder who was possibly in the Little River area of Grayson County.

SEE ALSO: 2 arrested in separate DUI incidents during Henry County traffic stop, sheriff says

Advertisement

Investigators say they immediately began preparing search warrants, and the sheriff’s office, along with the Virginia State Police, launched drones to survey and monitor the suspect’s activity.

Authorities said that after they determined the wanted individual, Vukmer, was at a location on Windwood Lane, deputies were sent to the address. Lt. Jody Poole and Deputy Adam Bolling then took Vukmer into custody without incident.

Comment with Bubbles

BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT

Vukmer was charged with being a fugitive from justice and is being held at the New River Valley Regional Jail pending extradition to North Carolina to face murder charges, according to authorities.

Advertisement



Source link

Continue Reading

Virginia

Flags at half-staff in Virginia to honor Rev. Jesse Jackson

Published

on

Flags at half-staff in Virginia to honor Rev. Jesse Jackson


Flags are flying at half-staff in Virginia on Saturday in honor of the life of Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.

Governor Abigail Spanberger ordered that the flags be flown at half-staff on all state and local buildings and grounds in the Commonwealth in honor of Jackson. The civil rights leader died on Tuesday. He was 84.

READ MORE | Descano says victims wouldn’t aid Abdul Jalloh prosecution; here’s what we found

“We honor his decades of service as a minister, community leader, and international civil rights leader,” Spanberger wrote in the order.

Advertisement

The flags will remain at half-staff until sunset.

Jackson’s family confirmed he died at home, surrounded by family. He was battling the neurodegenerative disorder Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP).

He is survived by his wife, Jacqueline Lavinia Brown, and their five children: Santita Jackson, former Rep. Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. (D-Ill.), Jonathan Luther Jackson, Yusef DuBois Jackson, Esq., and Jacqueline Lavinia Jackson, Jr.

ALSO SEE | Rev. Jesse Jackson, civil rights icon and longtime King protege, has died at 84

Jackson was known as a protege of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and helped lead the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

Advertisement

Jackson was with King during his assassination at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis in 1968.



Source link

Continue Reading

Trending