Virginia Roberts Giuffre

Virginia Louise Giuffre (''née'' Roberts; August 9, 1983 – April 25, 2025) was an American-Australian accuser of child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and a campaigner who offered support to survivors of sex trafficking. Giuffre created Victims Refuse Silence, a non-profit organization in the United States, in 2015, which was relaunched under the name Speak Out, Act, Reclaim (SOAR) in November 2021. She gave a detailed account to many American and British reporters about her experiences of being trafficked by Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

Giuffre pursued criminal and civil actions against Epstein and Maxwell, and appealed directly to the public for justice and awareness. She sued Maxwell for defamation in 2015, and the case was settled in Giuffre's favor for an undisclosed sum in 2017. On July 2, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ordered the unsealing of documents from the earlier civil suit by Giuffre against Maxwell. The first batch of documents from Giuffre's suit were released to the public on August 9, 2019, further implicating Epstein, Maxwell, and a number of their associates. The following day, Epstein was found dead in his Manhattan prison cell.

In an October 2019 interview for BBC's ''Panorama'', aired on December 2, Giuffre described her experiences of being sex trafficked by Epstein to Britain's Prince Andrew, which helped shift public opinion against the prince. She subsequently sued the prince in civil court in New York. The suit was settled in February 2022, with Prince Andrew paying an undisclosed amount to Giuffre and making a substantial donation to her charity.

Giuffre died by suicide in April 2025.

Early life

Virginia Giuffre was born Virginia Louise Roberts in Sacramento, California, on August 9, 1983, to Sky William Roberts and Lynn Trude Cabell. She had two stepbrothers, Sky and Daniel. The family relocated to Loxahatchee in Palm Beach County, Florida, when she was four years old. It was reported that she had come from a "troubled home" and, from the age of seven, was molested by a close family friend. "I was just so mentally scarred already at such a young age, and I ran away from that", she said on ''Panorama'' in 2019. Giuffre told the ''Miami Herald'' that she went from being in "an abusive situation, to being a runaway, to living in foster homes". She lived on the streets at age 14, where she says she found only "hunger and pain and oreabuse". Later she was abused by a sex trafficker, Ron Eppinger, in Miami. Giuffre lived with Eppinger for approximately 6 months. Eppinger reportedly ran a front business for international sex trafficking known as the modeling agency "Perfect 10". He was raided by the FBI and later pleaded guilty to charges of alien smuggling for prostitution, interstate travel for prostitution, and money laundering.

At the age of 14, Giuffre reunited with her father and returned to live with him. Her father worked as a maintenance manager at the Mar-a-Lago property owned by Donald Trump, and also helped Giuffre obtain a job there. She attended Royal Palm Beach High School.

Association with Epstein (2000–2002)

In mid-2000, Giuffre met Ghislaine Maxwell when working as a spa attendant at Donald Trump's private Mar-a-Lago club while reading a book about massage therapy. Maxwell, a British socialite and daughter of the late media tycoon Robert Maxwell, approached Giuffre, noted the book that she was reading, inquired about her interest in massage, and offered her a potential job working for Epstein as a traveling masseuse with the assurance that no experience was necessary. When Giuffre arrived at Epstein's Palm Beach home, she says he was naked lying down and Maxwell told her how to massage him. "They seemed like nice people so I trusted them, and I told them I'd had a really hard time in my life up until then—I'd been a runaway, I'd been sexually abused, physically abused. ... That was the worst thing I could have told them because now they knew how vulnerable I was", Giuffre stated. Giuffre stated that after Maxwell introduced her to Jeffrey Epstein, the two quickly began grooming her to provide sexual services under the guise that she was to be trained as a professional massage therapist.

Between 2000 and 2002, Giuffre was closely associated with Epstein and Maxwell, traveling between Epstein's residences in Palm Beach and Manhattan (at the Herbert N. Straus House), with additional trips to Epstein's Zorro ranch in New Mexico and private island Little Saint James. In the ''Miami Herald''s investigative journalism series "Perversion of Justice", Giuffre describes her experiences of being trafficked by Epstein to provide massages and sexual services for him and a number of his business associates over a two-and-a-half-year period. In her interview with the BBC, Giuffre said she was "passed around like a platter of fruit" to Epstein's powerful associates, and taken round the world on private jets.

Of the instance in March 2001 that Giuffre was allegedly trafficked to Prince Andrew, she stated in an interview that it was a "wicked" and "really scary time" in her life and that she "couldn't comprehend how in the highest level of the government powerful people were allowing this to happen. Not just allowing but participating in it". After visiting a nightclub, Giuffre says Maxwell told her that she, "had to do for Andrew what I do for Jeffrey". In court documents from a civil suit that were released from seal in 2019, Giuffre named several others that she claims Epstein and Maxwell instructed her to have sex with, including hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin, attorney Alan Dershowitz, politician Bill Richardson, the late MIT scientist Marvin Minsky, lawyer George J. Mitchell, and MC2 modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel. Many of the men denied Giuffre's allegations.

In September 2002, at the age of 19, Giuffre flew to Thailand and attended the International Training Massage School in Chiang Mai. Maxwell provided her with tickets to travel to Thailand, and instructed her to meet with a specific Thai girl to bring her back to the United States for Epstein. While at the massage school in Thailand in 2002, she met Robert Giuffre, an Australian martial arts trainer, and the two married quickly thereafter. She contacted Epstein and informed him that she would not be returning as planned. She and her husband started a life and family in Australia, and Giuffre broke off contact with Epstein and Maxwell. For five years, Giuffre and her husband lived a quiet life in Australia with their young children.

First contact by authorities

In March 2005, while Giuffre was still establishing her family in Australia, the Palm Beach Police Department began investigating Epstein after a 14-year-old girl and her parents reported his behavior. The girl described being recruited by a female classmate from her high school to give Epstein a massage at his mansion in exchange for money, wherein he subsequently molested her. By October 2005, the police had a growing list of girls with similar claims of sexual abuse, statements from Epstein's butlers corroborating their claims, and a search warrant for his Palm Beach property.

Police detectives noted that the accusers all described a similar pattern where Epstein would ask them to massage him and then sexually assault them during the massage. When police searched through Epstein's trash, they found notes with the telephone numbers of the girls on them. One of the girls was called by Epstein's assistant while being questioned by police.

Giuffre told the ''Miami Herald'' that she received a series of phone calls in rapid succession over three days in 2007. The first call was from Maxwell, then one day later came a call from Epstein, both of whom asked if she had spoken to authorities, followed by a third call from an FBI agent who stated that Giuffre had been identified as a victim during the first criminal case against Epstein. She resisted speaking at length to the FBI until she was approached again about the matter in person, this time by the Australian Federal Police, six months after being contacted by phone.

Photos, records and witnesses confirm large parts of Giuffre's statements about her time with Epstein.

Legal proceedings

First criminal case against Epstein

In 2006, a year before Giuffre was first contacted by authorities, the Palm Beach Police Department had a growing body of evidence against Epstein, and signed a probable cause affidavit charging him with multiple counts of unlawful sex acts with a minor. Epstein hired a team of powerful lawyers, including Alan Dershowitz, Jack Goldberger, Ken Starr, and Jay Lefkowitz, to serve in his defense. As the case progressed, Police Chief Michael Reiter became alarmed at the handling of the case by state prosecutors and then state attorney, Barry Krischer. On May 1, 2006, Reiter asked Krischer to remove himself from the case; when Krischer declined, Police Chief Reiter turned his evidence over to the FBI for federal prosecution. While Reiter was initially hopeful that the FBI would thoroughly investigate and move the matter to a conclusion, in 2007, then South Florida U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta decided not to prosecute Epstein in federal court and referred the matter back to the local jurisdiction.

Lead police detective Joseph Recarey asserted that the state prosecutors were at first eager to pursue criminal action against Epstein, but that "everything took a turn" when lawyer Alan Dershowitz got involved. Krischer then decided to take the unusual action of turning Epstein's case over to a grand jury, and then presented testimony from only one girl. Epstein's legal team aggressively sought concessions and prolonged the process when negotiating a plea deal with Acosta. Acosta, who described the tactics of Epstein's lawyers as a "year-long assault on the prosecution and prosecutors", eventually agreed to sign a controversial non-prosecution agreement in 2008, which was done without informing the victims, later determined to be in violation of the Crime Victims' Rights Act.

Reiter expressed that the state and federal prosecutors' handling of the Epstein case amounted to "the worst failure of the criminal justice system" in modern times.

Crime Victims' Rights Act lawsuit (2008–2019)

In 2008, a lawsuit (''Jane Doe v. United States of America)'' was filed by Bradley Edwards and Paul G. Cassell that accused the U.S. Justice Department of violating the Crime Victims' Rights Act during the first criminal case against Epstein by failing to allow several of his victims to challenge his plea deal. Epstein sued Bradley Edwards for civil racketeering but later dropped his suit; Edwards countersued for malicious prosecution, with the result that Epstein issued a public apology to the lawyer and settled the case for an undisclosed sum in December 2018. Edwards, who represents several Epstein accusers in addition to Giuffre, reportedly settled in aid of his clients, whose greatest wish was to pursue their larger objective of having their allegations heard in a federal court in order to overturn the non-prosecution agreement. Edwards stated that "They're willing to talk. They want to share their stories. This was part of their healing."

In a February 2019 ruling, District Judge Kenneth Marra determined that prosecutors had violated victims' rights as defined by the Crime Victims' Rights Act.

Victims' civil suit

In May 2009, Giuffre filed a lawsuit as Jane Doe 102 against Epstein and accused Maxwell of recruiting her to a life of being sexually trafficked while she was a minor. By late 2009, dozens of Epstein's victims had filed civil lawsuits against him. All suits were settled for undisclosed amounts. In January 2022, unsealed documents revealed that the settlement amount of the 2009 case, entitled ''Jane Doe No. 102 vs. Jeffrey Epstein'', was $500,000 () and other unspecified "valuable consideration".

Decision to speak out publicly

Giuffre credited the birth of her daughter on January 7, 2010, as the date she decided to come forward publicly and begin speaking out about her experiences of sexual abuse and trafficking, despite the risks. '' Vanity Fair'' stated that Giuffre's story was first publicized in March 2011 by the ''Mail on Sunday''; the coverage included the photo showing Prince Andrew with his arm around her at Maxwell's house in Belgravia, London. FBI agents again made contact with Giuffre, this time at the US consulate in Sydney in 2011, soon after she went public with allegations against Epstein.

In December 2014, Giuffre set up the framework for her organization Victims Refuse Silence. It was registered as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in 2015. The objective of Victims Refuse Silence is to "help survivors surmount the shame, silence, and intimidation typically experienced by victims of sexual abuse, and to help others to escape becoming victims of sex trafficking". For her organization, Giuffre used imagery of a blue Morpho butterfly to symbolize the transformation and empowerment that occurs when a victim becomes a survivor. Blue is the international color of human trafficking awareness. The United States has designated January as Human Trafficking Awareness Month with January 11 listed as National Wear Blue Day. Giuffre's charity was relaunched in November 2021 under the name Speak Out, Act, Reclaim (SOAR).

Prince Andrew allegations and settlement

In a December 2014 Florida court filing, intended for inclusion in the 2008 Crime Victims' Rights Act lawsuit, Giuffre described being trafficked to Prince Andrew, Duke of York, at least three times when she was 17 in 2001 for rape. She claimed that Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell took her to Tramp nightclub in London, where she met and danced with Andrew and that later that night, while en route to Maxwell's Belgravia residence, Maxwell instructed Giuffre to "do for (Prince Andrew) what you do for Epstein". She alleged Epstein paid her $15,000 after she had sex with the Duke in London.

A photo that shows Giuffre, Prince Andrew and Maxwell in Maxwell's apartment has been widely circulated since 2011. Prince Andrew's ten-year role as a United Kingdom trade envoy was terminated in July 2011, and he reportedly cut all ties with Epstein. Maxwell, while serving her prison sentence, stated to several interviewers that she believed the photograph was fake. Following the allegations, ''The Mail on Sunday'', which first published the photograph in 2011, was contacted by the photographer Michael Thomas, who took 39 copies of it, front and back. The back of the photo has a time stamp showing it was developed on March 13, 2001 – three days after Andrew allegedly engaged in sexual activity with Giuffre – and it was printed at a one-hour photo lab at Walgreens in Florida, near Giuffre's former home.

The second sexual encounter with Andrew allegedly happened in Epstein's New York mansion. In court documents, Giuffre claimed that the third encounter with Prince Andrew was an orgy on Little Saint James that involved her, several underage girls from Eastern Europe, the Prince, and Epstein himself.

In 2015, spokespersons for the British royal family stated that "any suggestion of impropriety with underage minors is categorically untrue", later repeating the denials. Requests from Giuffre's lawyers for a statement under oath from the Duke about the allegations were returned unanswered.

Launch of civil lawsuit: ''Virginia Giuffre v. Prince Andrew'' (2021) and settlement

On August 9, 2021, Giuffre filed a civil lawsuit in New York against Britain's Prince Andrew alleging that she was forced to have several sexual encounters with the prince in the early 2000s after being trafficked by Epstein when she was 16 and 17 years old. Andrew denied Giuffre's claims. On January 12, 2022, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan rejected Andrew's attempts to dismiss the case, allowing the sexual abuse lawsuit to proceed.

On February 15, 2022, the parties reached an out-of-court settlement, which included the Prince making a substantial donation to Giuffre's charity. As part of the settlement, Prince Andrew acknowledged that it is "known that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked countless young girls over many years" and that he "regrets his association with Epstein, and commends the bravery of Ms. Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others." Andrew 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 settlement was an estimated £12 million, part of which went to SOAR (Speak Out, Act, Reclaim), the advocacy charity for survivors of sex trafficking that Giuffre had founded.

Alan Dershowitz allegations and related lawsuits

Giuffre claims that Epstein sex trafficked her to lawyer and Harvard law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz at least six times, the first when she was aged 16. He denied the claims. Dershowitz represented Epstein in his 2008 criminal conviction and helped to negotiate the controversial non-prosecution agreement on his behalf.

The claims first appeared in a December 30, 2014, Florida court filing by lawyers Bradley J. Edwards and Paul G. Cassell which alleged that Dershowitz was one of several prominent figures, including Prince Andrew, to have participated in sexual activities with a minor later identified as Giuffre. The affidavit from Giuffre was meant for inclusion as part of the 2008 lawsuit (''Jane Doe v. USA'') accusing the Justice Department of violating the Crime Victims Rights Act during Epstein's first criminal case. Dershowitz vehemently denied the allegations in Giuffre's statement and sought disbarment of Edwards and Cassell, the lawyers filing the suit. Edwards and Cassell sued Dershowitz for defamation in 2015; he countersued. The two parties settled in 2016 for an undisclosed financial sum.

Following denials by Dershowitz, Giuffre stated, "I'm not going to be bullied back into silence."

In 2014, Giuffre was represented by Stanley Pottinger, whose firm specializes in sex abuse cases involving women and children. Anticipating the challenges that awaited Giuffre in accusing extremely wealthy and powerful individuals, Pottinger looked for another lawyer that could match this. At the request of Pottinger, David Boies and his firm Boies Schiller Flexner began representing Giuffre ''pro bono'' in 2014. Boies represents several of Epstein's accusers. In addition to Boies, attorneys for Giuffre include Brad Edwards and Paul Cassell.

Launch of civil lawsuit: ''Virginia Giuffre v. Alan Dershowitz'' (2019)

In April 2019, Giuffre filed a federal civil defamation lawsuit against Alan Dershowitz in New York, with David Boies as her lawyer.

That same month, Maria Farmer filed an affidavit in support of Giuffre's defamation suit against Dershowitz which stated that while Farmer worked signing in guests at Epstein's front desk in 1995–1996, she had regularly encountered Dershowitz at the New York mansion at times when underage girls were present.

In June, Dershowitz filed a motion to dismiss Giuffre's suit (which was later denied) and a motion to disqualify Boies' firm from representing her (which was later approved). Giuffre stated in September 2019 that she continued to stand by her claims of misconduct by Dershowitz. Dershowitz accused Boies of pressuring Giuffre to provide false testimony, in response to which Boies sued Dershowitz in November 2019 for defamation.

In October 2019, Charles Cooper took over representation of Giuffre in the defamation suit against Dershowitz after a judge ruled that Boies could not continue as Giuffre's lawyer because Dershowitz's claim that she conspired with her attorneys to make false claims had turned Boies into a potential witness. Boies filed a separate defamation lawsuit against Dershowitz for implying that he had pressured Giuffre into making false claims.

All claims were dismissed in November 8, 2022, after attorneys for Giuffre, Boies, and Dershowitz filed joint stipulations, and no fees were awarded to either side. Giuffre stated she may have been mistaken in identifying Dershowitz.

Additional civil cases

Virginia Roberts affidavit (2014)

Giuffre filed court papers in Florida in January 2015, stating that Epstein trafficked her to Prince Andrew and Alan Dershowitz. In a sworn affidavit, she claims Maxwell worked as Epstein's madam. In April 2015, a federal judge ruled that Giuffre could not join the federal Crime Victims' Rights Act lawsuit, and her affidavit was stricken from the case.

''Virginia Giuffre v. Ghislaine Maxwell'' (2015)

As a result of Giuffre's allegations and Maxwell's comments about them, Giuffre sued Maxwell for defamation in federal court in New York in September 2015. After much legal confrontation, the case was settled under seal in June 2017 with Maxwell reportedly paying Giuffre "millions".

''Rina Oh v. Virginia Giuffre'' (2021)

Rina Oh sued Giuffre for defamation in October 2021. Giuffre accused Oh of helping traffick girls for Epstein, while Oh maintains that she was a victim and that she has never helped traffickers. In 2022 in court documents Oh accused Giuffre of touching her sexually without consent while Epstein watched, but Giuffre denied the claim. She alleged Oh slashed her during sado masochistic games done for Epstein, but Oh denied this. Oh also alleges that Guiffre procured and abused minors.

Second criminal case against Epstein

Jeffrey Epstein was arrested on July 6, 2019, at Teterboro Airport and sex trafficking conspiracy by prosecutors with the Public Corruption Unit of the Southern District of New York In the indictment, Epstein was accused of soliciting massages from underage girls where the activities became increasingly sexual and then of enlisting the girls to recruit other underage victims for pay. U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York appealed for other victims of Epstein to come forward. The federal indictment also listed the key role of Epstein's paid "employees and associates" responsible for scheduling victims.

One month after his arrest, Epstein was found dead on August 10, 2019, after reportedly hanging himself in his Manhattan prison cell.

On August 29, 2019, in the wake of Epstein's death 19 days prior, the case against Epstein was closed after District Judge Richard Berman dismissed all sex trafficking charges. Judge Berman expressed support for Epstein's accusers, stating that he invited them to speak publicly at a hearing on August 27, 2019, out of "respect" for "the difficult decisions victims made to come forward". Giuffre was among the 16 women who spoke publicly at the hearing, which included Anouska De Georgiou, Sarah Ransome, Jennifer Araoz, Chauntae Davies, Courtney Wild, Theresa J. Helm, and Marijke Chartouni. At the hearing, Giuffre stated, "The reckoning must not end. It must continue. He did not act alone. We the victims know that." Prosecutors signaled that they would continue an investigation for potential co-conspirators.

Media coverage and appearances

Giuffre appeared on a special edition of ''Dateline NBC'' with Savannah Guthrie discussing the Epstein scandal along with victims Anouska De Georgiou, Rachel Benavidez, Jennifer Araoz, Marijke Chartouni and Chauntae Davies. The special, titled "Reckoning", aired on September 20, 2019.

Giuffre was interviewed for the '' 60 Minutes Australia'' investigation that aired on November 10, 2019. In the program she described her experiences of being trafficked by Epstein and Maxwell to have sex with Prince Andrew three times in 2001: the first time being in London at Maxwell's Belgravia residence, the second at Epstein's New York mansion, and the final occurrence (involving multiple girls and the Prince) on Little Saint James.

Giuffre also gave an interview in October 2019 to the BBC, and described her experience of being sex-trafficked by Epstein to Prince Andrew for a ''Panorama'' special, "The Prince and the Epstein Scandal", which aired on December 2, 2019. In the program, Giuffre directly appealed to the public by stating, "I implore the people in the UK to stand up beside me, to help me fight this fight, to not accept this as being ok."

BBC reporter Emily Maitlis conducted a ''Newsnight'' interview with Prince Andrew, discussing Giuffre's allegations and his friendship with Epstein, which aired on November 16, 2019. The reaction to the Prince's conduct during the interview was one of overwhelming disapproval; this, combined with Giuffre's public appeal, helped lead to a widespread shift in opinion by the British people. The prince resigned from his royal duties on November 20, 2019, as a number of organizations and charities that he was connected to severed ties. Despite the Prince's promises to assist authorities, in January 2020, U.S. attorney Geoffrey Berman stated that Prince Andrew had provided "zero cooperation" after the FBI and the Southern District of New York had requested to interview him as part of the Epstein inquiry.

In July 2020, following Maxwell's federal indictment, Giuffre was interviewed by Gayle King for ''CBS This Morning''.

Giuffre and other survivors of Epstein's sex trafficking ring were featured in the four-part documentary series '' Surviving Jeffrey Epstein'', which premiered on August 9, 2020, on Lifetime.

Writing

Giuffre wrote an unpublished memoir titled ''The Billionaire's Playboy Club'', in which she described her time with Eppinger and Epstein. It was filed as evidence during Giuffre's 2015 lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell and unsealed in 2019.

Personal life

Following her marriage to Robert Giuffre in 2002, Virginia lived in Glenning Valley on the Central Coast, New South Wales for 11 years. The family relocated to the United States in November 2013 and stayed for several years, initially spending time in Florida, and later in Colorado in 2015. In 2019, it was reported that Virginia Giuffre lived in Cairns, Queensland, with her husband Robert and their three children: two sons and one daughter. In 2020, she moved with her family to Ocean Reef in Perth, Western Australia. By early 2025, Giuffre and her husband had separated. Her brother and sister-in-law have said that she had separated from Robert even earlier, in August 2023. In 2025, Virginia stated that her husband had physically abused her both during their life together and more recently. She was subsequently accused of breaching a family violence restraining order taken out by Robert and a court hearing was set. Asked for comment by the press days after her accident (on which see below), she denied violating any such order and added that she would defend herself "against his malicious claim".

Hospitalization and death

On March 31, 2025, in an Instagram post, Giuffre claimed that her car collided with a bus traveling at , resulting in her going into renal failure. Giuffre said she had been given four days to live. Her family later said in a statement that "police were called but said that there was no one available to come to the scene", and Giuffre, who was "banged up and bruised", was subsequently taken to hospital as her condition deteriorated. She was later discharged.

Giuffre died of suicide at her home in Neergabby, Western Australia, on April 25, 2025, at the age of 41. Although the family at first accepted the alleged cause of death as suicide, on May 1 Giuffre's father released a statement discounting the suicide explanation and positing that "somebody got to her". However, Giuffre's Australia-based attorney Karrie Louden said she believed that Giuffre's death was not "suspicious in any way".

At the time of her death, she was in a custody battle for her three children with Robert Giuffre, with whom she was undergoing a divorce.

References

Further reading

*
*
*
*

External links

*

Unsealed Court Documents from Giuffre vs. Maxwell


* ttps://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Dershowtiz-Counterclaim.pdf Unsealed Court Documents from Giuffre vs. Dershowitz

{{DEFAULTSORT:Giuffre, Virginia Louise
1983 births
2025 deaths
2025 suicides
21st-century American women
Activists from California
Advocacy groups
American expatriates in Australia
American women founders
Anti–human trafficking activists
Australian founders
Jeffrey Epstein
People from Palm Beach County, Florida
Activists from Sacramento, California
Sexual abuse cover-ups
Suicides in Western Australia
Victims of underage prostitution
Sexual abuse victim advocates