Andrew ‘gagged’ Virginia Giuffre to avoid ruining Queen’s jubilee, memoir says
Prince Andrew insisted his accuser Virginia Giuffre sign a one-year gag order to prevent tarnishing the late Queen’s platinum jubilee, her memoirs have revealed.
Andrew dramatically relinquished his Duke of York title and remaining honours on Friday evening in a bid by the King, in consultation with the Prince of Wales, to bring an end to the long-lasting scandal.
But Ms Giuffre’s posthumous book, which is due out on Tuesday, is focusing further attention on the sexual assault allegations and the prince’s friendship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein which led to the royal’s downfall.
She tells how Andrew’s disastrous Newsnight was like an “injection of jet fuel” for her legal team, and it raised the possibility of “subpoenaing” his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, and daughters Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie and drawing them into the legal case, The Telegraph reported.
The former duke paid millions to settle a civil sexual assault case with Ms Giuffre in 2022, despite insisting he had never met her.
His 2019 Newsnight interview, which he hoped would clear his name, backfired when he said he “did not regret” his friendship with convicted paedophile Epstein, who trafficked Ms Giuffre.
He was heavily criticised for failing to show sympathy with the sex offender’s victims.
Ms Giuffre alleged, which Andrew vehemently denies, that she was forced to have sex with the prince on three occasions, including when she was 17, after being trafficked by Epstein.
Queen Elizabeth II was celebrating her platinum jubilee in 2022 – the first British monarch to reach the milestone – as the civil case against her son gathered pace. It was settled just nine days after she reached the 70th anniversary of her accession.
In January 2022, a US judge ruled the civil case against Andrew could go ahead, and the Queen went on to strip him of his honorary military roles, with the prince also giving up his HRH style.
In February of that year, court documents showed Andrew and Ms Giuffre had reached a “settlement in principle” in 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 settlement avoided a public trial, saving the monarchy from the controversy of an in-depth investigation into Ms Giuffre’s claims in a year when the Queen was preparing to take part in an extended June weekend of jubilee celebrations.
In the end, the Queen’s reported favourite son stayed behind closed doors for the jubilee and missed the church service, having announced the day before he had Covid.
Ms Giuffre, whose book is called 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.
She also told how Andrew had “stonewalled” her legal team for months before settlement discussions began moving very quickly when his deposition was scheduled for March 2022.
Ms Giuffre also wrote how she was “revolted” to see “two of my abusers together” when Andrew was pictured walking with Epstein in New York in 2011 and “amazed” that a member of the royal family would be “stupid enough” to appear in public with the convicted paedophile.
Andrew, who remains a prince and continues to live in the vast Crown Estate property Royal Lodge, said on Friday that the “continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the royal family”.
He insisted he was putting his “family and country first” and would stop using “my title or the honours which have been conferred upon me”.