A forthcoming memoir from a woman who accused a senior British royal of sexual assault contains a new and explosive claim: that she was legally compelled to remain silent during a major national celebration to protect the monarchy’s image.
The late Virginia Giuffre, who died in April, writes in her posthumously published book that she agreed to a court-ordered gag clause at the request of Prince Andrew. The alleged purpose was to ensure that her allegations did not further disrupt the Platinum Jubilee celebrations for Queen Elizabeth II in 2022.
“I consented to a one-year silencing order,” Giuffre recounts in the text, set for release this week. “It was clearly of great importance to the prince that his mother’s jubilee not be overshadowed any further.”
That same year, a U.S. judge allowed Giuffre’s civil lawsuit against the prince to move forward, leading the Queen to strip her son of his honorary military roles and royal patronages. The case was later settled out of court for a reported sum of millions of pounds, with a portion donated to a charity supporting victims’ rights.
The memoir also details how a disastrous 2019 television interview given by the prince acted as a catalyst for her legal team. Giuffre describes the prince’s widely criticized appearance, in which he expressed no regret over his association with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as an “injection of jet fuel” for her case. It reportedly spurred discussions about compelling testimony from his former wife and his two daughters.
In that interview, the prince denied ever meeting Giuffre, offering an alibi that he was at a pizza restaurant with his daughter on the date in question. Giuffre’s allegations, which the prince has consistently denied, stated she was trafficked by Epstein and forced into sexual encounters with the royal on three occasions when she was a teenager.
While the financial settlement was substantial, Giuffre suggests in her writing that the greater victory was a form of accountability. She believed she secured not just monetary compensation, but a critical, if indirect, acknowledgment of the harm inflicted upon her and other alleged victims.
