Overview
Virginia Giuffre, born Virginia Roberts, is the most publicly prominent survivor of Jeffrey Epstein’s trafficking network. Recruited at age 15 from Mar-a-Lago, where she worked as a spa attendant, she was brought into Epstein’s household and trafficked repeatedly over several years. After escaping the network with the help of her future husband Robert Giuffre, she became a public plaintiff and activist, pursuing civil accountability for herself and other survivors. Her 2022 settlement with Prince Andrew was among the most high-profile civil resolutions connected to the Epstein network.
Recruitment
Virginia Roberts was approximately 15 years old and working at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida when she was first approached. Ghislaine Maxwell approached her in approximately 1999, presenting herself as someone who could offer Virginia a job as a “traveling masseuse.” Virginia was taken to Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion, and the trafficking began.
Virginia was transported internationally and domestically. She has described being trafficked to multiple locations including Epstein’s New York townhouse, Little Saint James, locations in New Mexico, and locations in the United Kingdom and Europe.
Public Allegations
Virginia first came to significant public attention through an anonymous declaration filed in civil court in 2011, in which she described being trafficked and specifically named Prince Andrew as one of the men she had been directed to have sex with. She alleged she had met Prince Andrew on three occasions: in London (where a now-famous photograph was taken of Andrew with his arm around her waist while Ghislaine Maxwell stands in the background), in New York at Epstein’s townhouse, and on Little Saint James.
Virginia went public under her own name in a 2015 unsealed court filing. After a lengthy legal battle over the release of documents in her defamation suit against Maxwell, the documents became public in 2019 and again in a larger release in 2024.
Civil Litigation
Virginia filed multiple pieces of civil litigation related to the Epstein network:
Against Ghislaine Maxwell: Virginia sued Maxwell for defamation after Maxwell publicly called her account “false.” The civil litigation ran for years and ultimately settled in 2017 for a reported $500,000.
Against Jeffrey Epstein: Civil cases were complicated by Epstein’s NPA and ultimately by his death.
Against Prince Andrew: Following Prince Andrew’s November 2019 BBC Newsnight interview — in which he denied meeting Virginia and claimed he could not sweat due to a medical condition — Virginia filed a federal civil lawsuit in the Southern District of New York in August 2021 under the Child Victims Act. Prince Andrew denied all allegations and attempted to have the case dismissed. Those motions failed. In February 2022, Prince Andrew and Virginia Giuffre reached an out-of-court settlement for a reported sum in the range of $10–12 million, with Prince Andrew issuing a public acknowledgment of Giuffre’s bravery and making a charitable donation to a trafficking victims’ fund.
Post-Settlement
Following the Prince Andrew settlement, Virginia publicly stated she was withdrawing from public life to focus on her health and her family. In a subsequent period, she dropped a civil lawsuit against Alan Dershowitz, one of Epstein’s attorneys, citing personal reasons.
She had previously also dropped a suit against Dershowitz, who had counter-sued for defamation, and the dismissal of her claims against him was without prejudice.
Advocacy
Throughout her legal campaigns, Virginia publicly advocated for law reform to make it easier for trafficking survivors to access the civil justice system. She supported changes to statute of limitations in New York (the Child Victims Act) and testified before legislatures. She co-founded Speak Out, an organization dedicated to supporting trafficking survivors.
Sources
Virginia Giuffre’s civil court filings; Maxwell trial exhibits; Prince Andrew settlement announcement (February 2022); Giuffre public media interviews; Julie K. Brown, Perversion of Justice (2021).