Virginia Giuffre, a central figure in the downfall of disgraced paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, died by suicide yesterday aged 41.
The American-born mother-of-three was found dead at her farm in Neergabby, Australia, where she had been living for the past several years.
She had lived a life in the public eye after she stepped forward to denounce the horrific abuse she endured at the hands of Epstein.
‘Virginia was a fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking. She was the light that lifted so many survivors,’ her family said in a statement.
‘Despite all the adversity she faced in her life, she shone so bright. She will be missed beyond measure.’
She was one of the first people to call for criminal charges against financier Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.
Giuffre also rocked the royal family after she accused Epstein of trafficking her to Prince Andrew when she was 17, which the prince has vehemently denied.
Her tragic ending came after a life of tireless advocacy on behalf of herself and other alleged victims of Epstein’s sex crimes.
Prince Andrew, Virginia Giuffre, aged 17, and Ghislaine Maxwell at Ghislaine Maxwell’s townhouse in London, Britain on March 13 2001. Giuffre died on Friday by suicide
Virginia Giuffre pictured with her husband Robert Giuffre. The pair had separated earlier this year
Early life in Florida and childhood abuse
Born Virginia Louise Roberts on August 9, 1983, in Sacramento, California, Giuffre and her family moved to Florida when she was four years old.
Giuffre had said her childhood was shattered when she was sexually abused as a schoolgirl by a man her family knew, which she said ultimately led her to homelessness as a teenager.
In an interview with the Miami Herald, Giuffre said that she went from being in ‘an abusive situation, to being a runaway, to living in foster homes’.
She lived on the streets at the age of 14, where she said she found only ‘hunger and pain and [more] abuse.’
At one point, Giuffre was trafficked by Miami pimp Ron Eppinger and was confined to an apartment that was part of an underground brothel network.
Eppinger was arrested in 2000, and Giuffre reunited with her father Sky Roberts in West Palm Beach Florida.
Introduced to Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein
Giuffre met Ghislaine Maxwell while working at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate as a teenager
Maxwell offered Giuffre the opportunity to work as a massage therapist for Epstein.
Giuffrie said she had to recruit more girls and at one point started to travel with Epstein and Maxwell
She finally broke free of Epstein and Maxwell in 2002 when she met husband Robert
Trying to rebuild her life, Giuffre began working as a spa attendant at President Donald Trump’s Palm Beach club, Mar-a-Lago, where she would go on to meet Epstein’s then-girlfriend, British socialite Maxwell.
Maxwell offered Giuffre, aged 17 at the time, the opportunity to work as a massage therapist for Epstein.
‘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,’ she told the BBC.
‘That was the worst thing I could have told them because now they knew how vulnerable I was.’
But the couple effectively made her a sexual servant, pressuring her into gratifying not only Epstein but his high-profile friends and associates from 1999 to 2000.
She claimed was flown around the world for assignations with men including Prince Andrew while she was 17 and 18.
‘It started with one and it trickled into two and so on and before you know it, I’m being lent out to politicians and academics and royalty,’ she said.
She was also told to recruit more girls and at one point started to travel with Epstein and Maxwell.
She finally broke free of Epstein and Maxwell in 2002 when the couple sent her on a massage training course in Thailand, with the expectation she would bring back a specific girl for him.
Lawyer David Boies arrives with clients Virginia Giuffre and Annie Farmer for a hearing in the criminal case against Jeffrey Epstein, who died in 2019 in what a New York City medical examiner ruled a suicide
That’s where she met Australian Robert Giuffre and married him shortly after.
The couple went on to have three children together.
Giuffre comes forward about abuse; sues Epstein and Prince Andrew
Giuffre came forward after an initial investigation in 2005 ended in an 18-month Florida jail term for Epstein, who made a secret deal to avoid federal prosecution by pleading guilty instead to relatively minor state-level charges of soliciting prostitution.
He was released in 2009.
She attempted to tell her story in subsequent lawsuits against her alleged abusers.
In 2009, Giuffre sued Epstein and Maxwell, claiming they recruited her to join a sex-trafficking ring as a minor and stated that she was flown around the world for assignations with men including Prince Andrew.
The men denied it and assailed Giuffre’s credibility.
She acknowledged changing some key details of her account, including the age at which she first met Epstein.
But many parts of her story were supported by documents, witness testimony and photos — including one of her and Andrew, with his his arm around her bare midriff, in Maxwell’s London townhouse.
Giuffre sued Prince Andrew in 2021 accusing him of sexually assaulting her after she was trafficked to him by Epstein
Giuffre said in one of her lawsuits that she had sex with the royal three times: in London during her 2001 trip, at Epstein’s New York mansion when she was 17 and in the Virgin Islands when she was 18.
Andrew categorically rejected Giuffre’s allegations and said he didn’t recall having met her.
His denials blew up in his face during a November 2019 BBC interview.
Viewers saw a prince who proffered curious rebuttals – such as disputing Giuffre’s recollection of sweaty dancing by saying he was medically incapable of sweating – and showed no empathy for the women who said Epstein abused them.
Within days of the interview, Andrew stepped down from his royal duties. He settled with Giuffre in 2022 for an undisclosed sum, agreeing to make a ‘substantial donation’ to her survivors’ organization.
A statement filed in court said that the prince acknowledged Epstein was a sex trafficker and Giuffre ‘an established victim of abuse.’
The settlement did not include any admission of liability and Prince Andrew continues to deny the allegations.
In 2014, she set up Victims Refuse Silence, an organisation 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’.
She went on to identify herself publicly in 2015, crediting the birth of her daughter for her decision to come forward and begin speaking out about her experiences advocating for sex abuse survivors.
Epstein’s suicide in 2019 put an end to his accusers’ hopes of holding him criminally accountable.
Virginia Giuffre spotted in Perth last month
But in 2021, Giuffre sued Prince Andrew, accusing him of sexually assaulting her after she was trafficked to him by Epstein.
She also provided key information to law enforcement that helped prosecutors convict Maxwell in 2021 on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges.
Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
She had been living a fairly quiet life with her husband and their three children in a $1.9 million mansion in a Perth beach-side suburb.
Separation from husband and final social media posts
But this year, Giuffre separated from her husband, with her father Sky telling press that she was going through a ‘messy’ divorce.
Giuffre had been charged with breaching a family violence restraining order over an incident in February, and was set to appear in court in June in the city of Perth, where her estranged husband and children live.
She had yet to enter a plea to the charge. A conviction would have carried a potential maximum sentence of two years in prison.
Last month, she sparked a social media firestorm after sharing a spate of troubling posts.
On March 22, she posted a sun-drenched picture of her children on a beach, accompanied by an apparent desperate plea to see them.
Last month, she sparked a social media firestorm after she said on Instagram she had ‘four days to live’ after a car crash
‘My beautiful babies have no clue how much I love them and they’re being poisoned with lies,’ she posted.
‘I miss them so very much. I have been through hell and back in my 41 years but this is incredibly hurting me worse than anything else.
‘Hurt me, abuse me but don’t take my babies. My heart is shattered and every day that passes my sadness only deepens.’
Days later, concern grew for Giuffre after she shared a photograph of herself from a hospital bed covered in bruises.
In the caption, Giuffre claimed that her car had been hit by a bus at 110km/h and that she was fatally ill due to the accident.
The sex abuse survivor said she had suffered kidney failure from the crash and begged to see her children ‘one last time’ before she dies.
‘I’ve gone into kidney renal failure, they’ve given me four days to live, transferring me to a specialist hospital in urology,’ she captioned the photograph.
‘This year has been the worst start to a new year, but I won’t bore anyone with the details,’ it added.
‘I’m ready to go, just not until I see my babies one last time, but you know what they say about wishes.
‘S**T in one hand and wish in the other & I guarantee it’s still going to be s**t at the end of the day. Thank you all for being the wonderful people of the world and for being a great part of my life. Godbless you all xx Virginia.’
According to reports, a spokesperson for Ms Giuffre said the Instagram post was a mistake and she had meant to share the post to her private Facebook page.
Giuffre is survived by her three children, whom the statement described as the ‘light of her life.’
Sigrid McCawley, an attorney for Giuffre, said in a statement, ‘Her courage pushed me to fight harder, and her strength was awe-inspiring. The world has lost an amazing human being today. Rest in peace, my sweet angel.’
