Epstein, Prince Andrew accuser Virginia Giuffre wrote a memoir. It’s coming out months after her death
By Hillel Italie
New York: A posthumous and “unsparing” memoir by one of Jeffrey Epstein’s most prominent accusers, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, will be published on October 21, publishing house Alfred A. Knopf announced on Sunday (Monday AEST).
Giuffre, who died by suicide in April aged 41, had been working on Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice with American author-journalist Amy Wallace. She had completed the manuscript for the 400-page book, according to the publisher.
Virginia Roberts Giuffre (centre), pictured here in 2001 with Prince Andrew and Ghislaine Maxwell, died in April. Her memoir is slated for an October release.Credit:
The publisher’s statement includes an email from Giuffre to Wallace a few weeks before her death, saying that it was her “heartfelt wish” the memoir be released “regardless” of her circumstances.
“The content of this book is crucial, as it aims to shed light on the systemic failures that allow the trafficking of vulnerable individuals across borders,” the email reads.
“It is imperative that the truth is understood and that the issues surrounding this topic are addressed, both for the sake of justice and awareness.”
Giuffre had been hospitalised following a serious accident on March 24, Knopf said, and sent the email on April 1. She died on April 25 in Western Australia.
“In the event of my passing, I would like to ensure that NOBODY’S GIRL is still released. I believe it has the potential to impact many lives and foster necessary discussions about these grave injustices,” she wrote to Wallace.
In 2023, the New York Post had reported that Giuffre had reached a deal “believed to be worth millions” with an undisclosed publisher. Knopf spokesperson Todd Doughty said she initially agreed to a seven-figure contract with Penguin Press, but moved with acquiring editor Emily Cunningham after Knopf hired Cunningham as executive editor last year.
Giuffre had often stated that, in the early 2000s, when she was a teenager, she was caught up in Epstein’s sex-trafficking ring and exploited by Britain’s Prince Andrew and other influential men. Epstein was found dead in a New York City jail cell in 2019 in what investigators described as a suicide. His former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, was convicted in late 2021 on sex-trafficking and other charges.
Andrew had denied Giuffre’s allegations. In 2022, Giuffre and Andrew reached an out-of-court settlement after she had sued him for sexual assault. A representative for Andrew did not immediately return a request for comment.
Nobody’s Girl is distinct from Giuffre’s unpublished memoir, The Billionaire’s Playboy Club, referenced in previous court filings and initially unsealed in 2019. Through Doughty, Wallace says she began working with Giuffre on a new memoir in 2021.
Giuffre’s name has continued to appear in headlines, even after her death. In July, United States President Donald Trump said that Epstein had “stolen” Giuffre from Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Florida where she once worked. She had alleged being approached by Maxwell and hired as a masseuse for Epstein. Maxwell has denied Giuffre’s allegations.
Giuffre (centre) leaving a New York Federal Court in 2019.Credit: Bloomberg
Doughty declined to provide details about the Epstein associates featured in Nobody’s Girl, but confirmed that Giuffre made “no allegations of abuse against Trump,” who continues to face questions about Epstein, the disgraced financier and his former friend.
Knopf’s statement says the book contains “intimate, disturbing and heartbreaking new details about her time with Epstein, Maxwell and their many well-known friends, including Prince Andrew, about whom she speaks publicly for the first time since their out-of-court settlement in 2022.” In a statement, Knopf publisher and editor-in-chief Jordan Pavlin called Nobody’s Girl a “raw and shocking” journey and “the story of a fierce spirit struggling to break free”.
Giuffre’s time with Epstein is well documented, although her accounts have been challenged. She had acknowledged getting details wrong, errors she attributed to trying to recall events from years ago. In 2022, she dropped allegations against Alan Dershowitz, saying in a statement at the time that she may “have made a mistake in identifying” the famed attorney as an abuser.
“Nobody’s Girl was both vigorously fact-checked and legally vetted,” a Knopf statement reads.
Wallace, Giuffre’s co-author on her memoir, is an award-winning magazine and newspaper reporter whose work has appeared in The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, among other publications. She has also collaborated on two previous books, Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull’s Creativity, Inc. and former General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt’s Hot Seat.
AP
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