Prince Andrew’s accuser Virginia Giuffre has told the BBC she felt “ashamed” after allegedly having sex with the Duke of York when she was a teenager as she claimed “powerful people were my chains”.
Giuffre on Monday explained to the Panorama programme how she was trafficked by the since-disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and forced to have sex with the royal in 2001. Andrew categorically denies he had any form of sexual contact or relationship with Giuffre, who was then known as Virginia Roberts.
These are five of the key moments from the now 35-year-old’s first UK television interview.
1. THE PHOTO
Giuffre said people were coming up with “ridiculous excuses” to explain an infamous photograph that appears to show her with Andrew’s arm around her.
She told Panorama the photo was genuine, and that she had given the original to the FBI in 2011.
She added: “The people on the inside are going to keep coming up with these ridiculous excuses, like his arm was elongated or the photo was doctored.
“I mean I’m calling BS on this. He knows what happened, I know what happened. And there’s only one of us telling the truth.”
Andrew told Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis last month that he did not remember the photograph being taken, and said he could not be certain it was his hand on her.
He added: “From the investigations that we’ve done, you can’t prove whether or not that photograph is faked or not, because it is a photograph of a photograph of a photograph.
“So it’s very difficult to be able to prove it, but I don’t remember that photograph ever being taken.”
2. SEX WITH ANDREW
Giuffre alleges she was brought to London by Epstein in 2001, where she was introduced to Andrew. Giuffre, the duke, Epstein, and his then girlfriend, the socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, took her to Tramp nightclub.
When they left the club, Giuffre said Maxwell gave her instructions and added: “In the car Ghislaine tells me that I have to do for Andrew what I do for Jeffrey, and that just made me sick.”
She says that later that evening, she had sex with the duke upstairs at Maxwell’s house in Belgravia, London.
Giuffre said: “There was a bath and it started there and then led into the bedroom.
“It didn’t last very long, the whole entire procedure. It was disgusting. He wasn’t mean or anything but he got up and he said ‘Thanks’ and walked out.
“I sat there in bed, just horrified and ashamed and felt dirty. I had to get up and have a shower.”
She added: “The next day Ghislaine tells me I did a really good job. She pats me on the back and said ‘You made him really happy’.”
In tears, Giuffre said: “It was a wicked time in my life. It was a really scary time in my life ... these powerful people were my chains.”
Andrew has categorically denied having sex with her on that night or any other night.
When asked if it could have been on another date, he said: “It didn’t happen.”
3. ANDREW’S SWEATING
Giuffre described Andrew as “the most hideous dancer I have ever seen in my life” and said he sweated all over her in the nightclub.
She told Panorama: “I mean it was horrible, and this guy was sweating all over me, like his sweat was like, it was raining basically everywhere, I was just like grossed out from it, but I knew I had to keep him happy because that’s what Jeffrey and Ghislaine would have expected from me.”
In his recent Newsnight interview, Andrew claimed he had a medical condition which meant he did not sweat.
He added: “There’s a slight problem with the sweating because I have a peculiar medical condition which is that I don’t sweat, or I didn’t sweat at the time.
“I didn’t sweat at the time because I had suffered what I would describe as an overdose of adrenaline in the Falklands War, when I was shot at, and I simply… it was almost impossible for me to sweat.”
4. INTRODUCTION TO EPSTEIN
Giuffre told how while working as a 17-year-old locker room attendant at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida she was approached by Maxwell to train as a massage therapist.
“They seemed like nice people so I trusted them,” she said of Maxwell and Epstein.
Giuffre told the couple she had had a difficult time and had been a runaway and sexually abused.
“That was the worst thing I could have told them because now they knew how vulnerable I was,” she said.
Quizzed on accusations of inconsistency in her story, Giuffre told Panorama: “You are left with a foggy memory sometimes, you really are.
“I might be wrong on dates absolutely and I might be wrong on places even, sometimes.
“But one thing that I can tell you is you never forget the face of someone who has heaved over you.”
5. ANDREW’S EMAIL
Andrew had told Newsnight he had “no recollection of ever meeting” Giuffre.
But Panorama claimed he emailled Maxwell in 2015 saying: “Let me know when we can talk. Got some specific questions to ask you about Virginia Roberts.”
Maxwell reportedly replied: “Have some info. Call me when you have a moment.”
The Duke of York has categorically denied Giuffre’s claims.