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LONDON: Britain’s royal family is once again under intense scrutiny as a memoir by one of Prince Andrew ‘s and Jeffery Epstein’s most outspoken accusers, Virginia Giuffre, hits bookstores Tuesday.
The memoir “Nobody’s Girl” is being published posthumously six months after Giuffre died by suicide in April.
Giuffre had for years accused Andrew of sexually abusing her on multiple occasions when she was under 18 years old and a victim of sexual trafficking by convicted sex offender Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.
While her book did not break new ground, it has thrown fuel on a series of new accusations against Andrew, who has renewed efforts to control the damage to the monarchy from the long-running scandal over his friendship with Epstein.
The 65-year-old prince said last week he will stop using his titles including the Duke of York, but reiterated that he “vigorously” denies Giuffre’s claims.
In her book — which leapt to No. 1 on Amazon’s bestseller list on Monday ahead of its publication — Giuffre wrote in detail about how she first met Andrew in March 2001, as well as how the royal’s staff had tried to hire “Internet trolls” to hassle her when she sued him years later.
Accounts of three interactions with Andrew
Giuffre long alleged that she was recruited at age 16 by Epstein and Maxwell, who introduced her to Andrew in London in March 2001 when she was 17. She said she was forced to have sex with the royal on three separate occasions.
She wrote that on the day she first met Andrew, Maxwell woke her up and told her it was going to be a special day and that “just like Cinderella” she will meet “a handsome prince.”
She said when they met, the prince told her that “my daughters are just a little younger than you.” She said Maxwell instructed her to “do for him what you do for Jeffrey,” adding: “I knew better than to question her orders.” She said Epstein gave her $15,000 soon after for having sex with Andrew.
Giuffre wrote that she had sex with the royal a second time at Epstein’s house in New York about a month later, and a third time on Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean along with about eight other girls who she said appeared to be under 18.
2022 lawsuit settlement
Giuffre previously detailed how Epstein, Maxwell and Andrew forced her to have sex with the prince against her will in a lawsuit she filed New York in 2021.
Andrew reached an out-of-court settlement with Giuffre in 2022 for an undisclosed sum. While he didn’t admit wrongdoing, Andrew did acknowledge Giuffre’s suffering as a victim of sex trafficking and agreed to make a donation to her charity.
Of that settlement, Giuffre wrote: “After casting doubt on my credibility for so long — Prince Andrew’s team had even gone so far as to try to hire Internet trolls to hassle me — the Duke of York owed me a meaningful apology as well.”
“We would never get a confession, of course. That’s what settlements are designed to avoid,” she added. “But we were trying for the next best thing: a general acknowledgment of what I’d been through.”
New allegations against the prince
Andrew, the second son of the late Queen Elizabeth II, already stepped down from all of his public duties and charity roles in 2019, after an attempt to dispel reports about his friendship with Epstein backfired badly.
The prince was widely criticized for the BBC interview, in which he offered unbelievable explanations for his continued relationship with the disgraced financier. He also denied that he had ever had sexual contact with Giuffre, that he had “no recollection” of ever meeting her and “absolutely no memory” of a now-infamous photograph showing him with his arm around her waist in 2001.
Andrew also said in the same interview that he had cut off contact with Epstein in December 2010.
Last week, British newspapers published an email that purportedly showed that the royal had remained in contact with Epstein longer than he had admitted. In the note, reportedly from Feb. 28, 2011, Andrew said they were “in this together” and would “have to rise above it.”
Separately, on Sunday London’s Metropolitan Police said it was looking into a report in the Mail on Sunday that Andrew in 2011 asked a police officer assigned to be his bodyguard to find out if Giuffre had a criminal record.

TOKYO: Japan’s parliament is set to elect ultraconservative Sanae Takaichi as the country’s first female prime minister Tuesday, one day after her struggling party struck a coalition deal with a new partner that would pull her governing bloc further to the right.
Takaichi will replace Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, ending a three-month political vacuum and wrangling since the Liberal Democratic Party’s disastrous election loss in July.
Ishiba, who lasted only one year in office, resigned with his Cabinet earlier Tuesday, paving the way for his successor.
The LDP’s off-the-cuff alliance with the Osaka-based rightwing Japan Innovation Party, or Ishin no Kai, ensures her premiership in a vote later in the day because the opposition is not united. Takaichi’s untested alliance is still short of a majority in both houses of parliament and they need to court other opposition groups to pass any legislation – a risk that could make her government unstable and short-lived.
“Political stability is essential right now,” Takaichi said at Monday’s signing ceremony with the JIP leader and Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura. “Without stability, we cannot push measures for a strong economy or diplomacy.”
The two parties signed a coalition agreement on policies underscoring Takaichi’s hawkish and nationalistic views.
Their last-minute deal Monday comes 10 days after the Liberal Democrats lost its longtime partner, the Buddhist-backed Komeito, which has a more dovish and centrist stance. The breakup threatened a change of power for the LDP, which has governed Japan almost uninterrupted for decades.
Once she is elected prime minister, Takaichi, 64, will present a Cabinet with a number of allies of LDP’s most powerful kingmaker, Taro Aso, and others who backed her in the party leadership vote.
JIP will not hold ministerial posts in Takaichi’s Cabinet until his party is confident about its partnership with the LDP, Yoshimura said.
Takaichi is running on deadline — a major policy speech later this week, talks with US President Donald Trump and regional summits. She needs to quickly tackle rising prices and compile economy-boosting measures by late December to address public frustration.
While she would be the first woman serving as Japan’s prime minister, she is in no rush to promote gender equality or diversity.
Takaichi is among Japanese politicians who have stonewalled measures for women’s advancement. Takaichi supports the imperial family’s male-only succession and opposes same-sex marriage and allowing separate surnames for married couples.
A protege of assassinated former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Takaichi is expected to emulate his policies including stronger military and economy, as well as revising Japan’s pacifist constitution. With a potentially weak grip on power, it’s unknown how much Takaichi would be able to achieve.
When Komeito left the governing coalition, it cited the LDP’s lax response to slush fund scandals that led to their consecutive election defeats.
The centrist party also raised concern about Takaichi’s revisionist view of Japan’s wartime past and her regular prayers at Yasukuni Shrine despite protests from Beijing and Seoul that see the visits as lack of remorse about Japanese aggression, as well as her recent xenophobic remarks.
Takaichi has toned down her hawkish rhetorics. On Friday, Takaichi sent a religious ornament instead of going to Yasukuni.