Virginia Giuffre’s posthumous memoirs detail the impact of Prince Andrew’s Newsnight interview and the settlement in the civil sexual assault case brought against the former duke
Jeffrey Epstein victim and Prince Andrew accuser Virginia Giuffre has made explosive claims in a posthumous memoir(Image: PA Wire/PA Images)
Prince Andrew demanded his accuser Virginia Giuffre agree to a one-year gagging clause to avoid overshadowing the late Queen’s platinum jubilee celebrations, according to her memoirs.
The Duke of York dramatically lost his title and remaining royal honours on Friday evening following a decision by the King, working alongside the Prince of Wales, in an attempt to draw a line under the enduring controversy.
However, Ms Giuffre’s posthumous memoir, set for release on Tuesday, has placed renewed focus on the sexual assault claims and the prince’s association with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein that contributed to his fall from grace.
She describes how Andrew’s catastrophic Newsnight appearance acted like an “injection of jet fuel” for her legal representatives.
The then-Duke of York, Virginia Giuffre, and Ghislaine Maxwell (Image: PA Media)
It also opened up the prospect of “subpoenaing” his former wife Sarah Ferguson, along with daughters Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, potentially dragging them into the legal proceedings, The Telegraph has reported.
Ms Giuffre revealed she gained “more out of” Andrew than a reported 12-million-dollar settlement and two-million-dollar charitable donation because she secured “an acknowledgement that I and many other women had been victimised and a tacit pledge to never deny it again”.
The former duke handed over millions to settle a civil sexual assault claim brought by Ms Giuffre in 2022, whilst maintaining he had never encountered her.
His 2019 Newsnight appearance, intended to vindicate him, spectacularly misfired when he declared he “did not regret” his association with convicted paedophile Epstein, who had trafficked Ms Giuffre. He faced severe criticism for his lack of empathy towards the victims of the sex offender.
Recent revelations have raised questions about Prince Andrew’s claims during his disastrous Newsnight interview(Image: PA Media)
Andrew also claimed he had “no recollection” of ever meeting Ms Giuffre and insisted that he could not have been involved with her in March 2001 as he was at Pizza Express with his daughter Beatrice on the alleged date.
Ms Giuffre’s allegations, which Andrew strongly denies, include being forced to engage in sexual activities with the prince on three separate occasions, one of which when she was just 17, after being trafficked by Epstein.
In 2022, Queen Elizabeth II was marking her platinum jubilee – the first British monarch to achieve this milestone – while the civil case against her son was gaining momentum. The case was settled merely nine days after she celebrated the 70th anniversary of her accession.
Ms Giuffre, who tragically took her own life in April, disclosed in her book: “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.”
In January 2022, a US judge decreed that the civil case against Andrew could proceed, leading the Queen to strip him of his honorary military roles, with the prince also relinquishing his HRH title.
By February of that year, court documents revealed that Andrew and Ms Giuffre had reached a “settlement in principle” regarding the civil sex claim.
Andrew made a “substantial donation to Ms Giuffre’s charity in support of victims’ rights”, and pledged to “demonstrate his regret for his association with Epstein” by supporting the “fight against the evils of sex trafficking, and by supporting its victims”, the legal papers revealed.
The agreement prevented a public trial, sparing the monarchy from the scandal of a detailed examination of Ms Giuffre’s allegations during a year when the Queen was set to participate in an extended June weekend of jubilee festivities.
Prince Andrew stayed out of sight during the 2022 jubilee(Image: © 2025 PA Media, All Rights Reserved)
However, there were worries the-then duke was attempting to arrange a comeback to public duties when he unexpectedly accompanied his mother to Prince Philip’s memorial in March 2022, and was subsequently invited to the jubilee thanksgiving service.
Ultimately, the Queen’s reportedly favoured son remained out of sight during the jubilee and was absent from the church service, having revealed the previous day he had tested positive for Covid.
Ms Giuffre, whose memoir is titled Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice, wrote, according to The Telegraph: “As devastating as this interview was for Prince Andrew, for my legal team it was like an injection of jet fuel.
“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.”
Disgraced Prince Andrew is no longer the Duke of York(Image: PA Wire/PA Images)
She also revealed that Andrew had “stonewalled” her legal team for months before settlement discussions began moving swiftly when his deposition was scheduled for March 2022.
Ms Giuffre expressed her disgust at seeing “two of my abusers together” when Andrew was photographed with Epstein in New York in 2011. She was “amazed” that a member of the Royal family would be “stupid enough” to appear in public with the convicted paedophile.
Andrew, who still holds the title of prince and resides in the expansive Crown Estate property Royal Lodge, stated on Friday that the “continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the royal family”.
He asserted that he was prioritising his “family and country first” and would cease using “my title or the honours which have been conferred upon me”.