What we learned from Virginia Giuffre’s memoir

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

Two days ahead of the book’s official publication, the BBC got hold of a copy.

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

Here’s what we learned from the 367-page-long 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 approximately eight other young girls and I had sex together,” she says.

“The other girls all appeared to be under the age of 18 and didn’t really speak English. Epstein laughed about how they couldn’t really communicate, saying they are the easiest girls to get along with.”

She later recalls seeing the photo of Epstein walking in New York’s central park with Prince Andrew, published in newspapers around the world in 2011.

“I was of course revolted to see two of my abusers together, out for a stroll,” she writes.

“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 any wrongdoing. In 2019, he told BBC Newsnight he did not remember meeting Ms Giuffre “at all”, and that they “never had any sort of sexual contact.”

Shortly after the alleged “orgy” Ms Giuffre says she “wasn’t in great shape”, and had irregular bleeding and a tenderness in her abdomen.

She says Epstein took her to a hospital, where she remembers being taken to an examination room. However, she says she is unclear what happened next due to pain medication affecting her memory.

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

“But Epstein told me I’d suffered a miscarriage, which is altogether something different,” Ms Giuffre says.

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

At the centre of the abuse was the late Epstein and his former 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 she she feared she might “die a sex slave” at the hands of Epstein and his circle.

The memoir includes shocking descriptions of sadomasochistic sex.

She says Epstein developed an interest in it over time, and began to “experiment with whips and restraints and other instruments of torture”.

“In session after session, he would play out various fantasies, with me as the victim,” she writes.

She says the chains and contraptions he used on her “caused so much pain that I prayed I would black out”. But she adds: “When I did, I’d awaken to more abuse”.

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

Rather than offering any care, Epstein was “disgusted” at her appearance, she says.

“‘You’re not the same girl you were,’ Epstein said coldly. ‘You need to clean yourself up’,” she writes in the book.

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

She says Maxwell turned up at the Mar-a-Lago spa, where a teenage Ms Giuffre was working.

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

She says Maxwell asked her to come for a job interview 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 started giving Epstein a massage. She says Maxwell then took her clothes off, and undressed Ms Giuffre, and they sexually abused her.

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

She later describes how Maxwell facilitated the introduction to Prince Andrew in March 2001.

She writes that Maxwell woke her up and told her it was going to be a “special day” – that “just like Cinderella” she was going to meet a “handsome prince”.

Ms Giuffre later writes that even decades later, she remembers how much she feared both 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 for soliciting prostitution from a person under the age of 18. He died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

Ms Giuffre describes feeling disappointed at his death. “This wasn’t how justice was supposed to work out,” she says.

On Prince Andrew, she recalls standing outside a courtroom and telling journalists: “He knows exactly what he’s done… and I hope he comes clean about it.”

She later writes that she hopes the royal – who has always denied wrongdoing – will be “held to account”.

The most powerful words are perhaps saved for the ending of the book.

“In my mind, I hold a picture of a girl reaching out for help and easily finding it,” Ms Giuffre writes.

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

“If this book moves us even an inch closer to a reality like that – if it helps just one person – I will have achieved my goal.”