What we learned from Virginia Giuffre’s memoir

Much of Virginia Giuffre’s story has been heard before, but in her memoirs, published posthumously, the abuse is described in horrific detail.

Two days before the book was officially published, the BBC obtained a copy.

There are revelations about Ms Giuffre’s meetings with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell – as well as more details about her claims about Prince Andrew, which he has always denied.

Here’s what we learned from the 367-page book.

In the memoir, Ms Giuffre says she had sex with Prince Andrew on three separate occasions.

The third time, she says, was on Epstein’s island as part of what Ms. Giuffre called an “orgy.”

“Epstein, Andy and about eight other young girls and I had sex together,” she says.

“All the other girls looked under the age of 18 and didn’t really speak English. Epstein laughed that they couldn’t really communicate, saying they were the easiest girls to get along with.”

She later recalled seeing the photo of Epstein walking in New York’s Central Park with Prince Andrew published in newspapers around the world in 2011.

“Of course, I was disgusted to see two of my abusers together, out for a walk,” she wrote.

“But mostly I was amazed that a member of the royal family would be stupid enough to appear in public with Epstein.”

Prince Andrew, who reached a financial settlement with Ms Giuffre in 2022, has repeatedly denied wrongdoing. in 2019 he told BBC Newsnight he did not remember meeting Ms Giuffre “at all”and that they “never had any sexual contact”.

Shortly after the alleged “orgy”, Ms Giuffre says she was “not in great shape” and had irregular bleeding and abdominal tenderness.

She says Epstein took her to a hospital, where she remembers being taken to an examination room. However, she says it’s unclear what happened after that due to pain medication affecting her memory.

Soon after, she wrote, one of the other girls at Epstein’s house suggested to her that an incision mark near her belly button might mean she had had surgery for an ectopic pregnancy.

“But Epstein told me I’d had a miscarriage, which was a completely different thing,” says Ms Giuffre.

“Epstein never wore a condom. Neither did the men he and Maxwell sold me to.”

At the center of the abuse were the late Epstein and his ex-girlfriend Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year sentence on sex-trafficking charges.

Ms Giuffre says that even after many years, the memories of what Epstein put her through “torture” her – and says that she feared she might “die a sex slave” in the hands of Epstein and his circle.

The memoir includes shocking descriptions of sadomasochistic sex.

She says Epstein developed an interest in him over time and began “experimenting with whips and restraints and other instruments of torture.”

“In session after session, he acted out various fantasies, with me as the victim,” she wrote.

She says the chains and contraptions he used on her “caused so much pain I was praying I would pass out”. But she adds, “When I did, I would wake up to more abuse.”

Ms Giuffre also described the physical effects this abuse had on her body, with dark circles under her eyes and her ribs visible under the skin.

Instead of offering any care, Epstein was “disgusted” by her appearance, she says.

“You’re not the same girl you were,” Epstein said coldly. “You have to come clean,” she writes in the book.

Ms. Giuffre goes into detail about how she first met Maxwell and how he introduced her to Epstein.

She says Maxwell showed up at the Mar-a-Lago spa, where the teenage Ms. Giuffre worked.

“She looks to be in her thirties and her British accent reminds me of Mary Poppins,” Ms Giuffre recalled.

She says Maxwell asked her to come interview for a job as a masseuse.

When she arrived at the house, Ms Giuffre says she was taken to a room where Epstein was completely naked on a massage table. “Just do what I do,” she says Maxwell told her.

Ms. Giuffre says she began massaging Epstein. She says Maxwell then removed her clothes and stripped Ms Giuffre and they sexually assaulted her.

“The disappointment was excruciating. I blamed myself. ‘Is sex all anyone will ever want from me,'” she wrote.

She later described how Maxwell facilitated the introduction of Prince Andrew in March 2001.

She wrote that Maxwell woke her up and told her the day would be “special” – that “just like Cinderella” she would meet a “handsome prince”.

Ms. Giuffre later wrote that even decades later, she remembered how much she feared Epstein and Maxwell.

One of the other themes running through the book is Ms. Giuffre’s desire for accountability.

Epstein was convicted in Florida in 2008 of soliciting prostitution of a person under the age of 18. He died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.

Ms. Giuffre described the feeling of disappointment at his death. “That’s not how justice was supposed to work,” she says.

Of Prince Andrew, she recalled standing outside a courtroom and telling reporters: “He knows exactly what he’s done … and I hope he comes clean.”

She later wrote that she hoped the royal – who has always denied wrongdoing – would be “held accountable”.

The strongest words are perhaps saved for the end of the book.

“I keep a picture in my mind of a girl reaching out for help and finding it easily,” Ms Giuffre wrote.

“I also imagine a woman who – having come to terms with her childhood pain – feels it’s within her power to take action against those who hurt her.

“If this book brings us even an inch closer to such a reality—if it helps just one person—I will have accomplished my goal.”