Copyright thestar
Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s memoir, published months after she died by suicide, will disappoint anyone who has been only been interested in her story for its salacious bombshells about boldfaced names. No further famous predators are unmasked, no catnip for conspiracy theorists is hinted at, and even her sexual assault allegations about Prince Andrew — which still seemed part of the catalyst for his “voluntary” decision to stop using most of his titles last week, and may see him evicted from the royal property where he’s allegedly been living rent-free for decades — aren’t detailed in much further detail than we already know. But “Nobody’s Girl — A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice” seems never to have been intended for that clickbait-hungry audience, anyway. In forensic, skin-crawling detail, it recounts how a little girl who loved horses and dreamed of being a vet found herself, just a few years later, trafficked into a world where girls are traded among powerful men, their abuse sometimes abetted by other women. It is unflinching and unsparing of its reader, even if the page only conveys a fraction of the horror of living through — and surviving the aftermath of — what Roberts Giuffre, and all the other girls she knew in this hellscape-in-plain-sight, sickening depravity played out on private islands and jets, in luxury mansions and at parties attended by notable names from across entertainment, business, politics and science. Here are six of the key takeaways. 1. Prince Andrew seemed “entitled,” as if “having sex with me was his birthright” While the broad details of her claims against Prince Andrew (which he continues to deny) remain the same, this book does add further stomach-churning detail. On the day she was first allegedly assaulted by the royal, Ghislaine Maxwell woke her up and took her shopping — a haul that included a Burberry purse — to get her ready to meet the prince that night. The outfit that the teenage Roberts Giuffre picked out herself, sparkly jeans and a midriff baring baby tee that emulated her teen idol Britney Spears, is the one that is pictured in the infamous picture of the prince with his arm around her. (Taken, we learn, on her own Kodak FunSaver camera.) Upon meeting her, Prince Andrew guessed her age — just 17 — correctly because, as he said, according to Giuffre, “My daughters are just a little younger than you.” “He was friendly enough, but still entitled — as if he believed having sex with me was his birthright. I drew him a hot bath. We disrobed and got in the tub, but didn’t stay there long because the prince was eager to get to the bed. He was particularly attentive to my feet, caressing my toes and licking my arches. That was a first for me, and it tickled,” she writes of the first time Epstein and Maxwell told her she needed to have sex with the prince. “I was nervous he would want me to do the same to him. But I needn’t have worried. He seemed in a rush to have intercourse. Afterward, he said thank you in his clipped British accent. In my memory, the whole thing lasted less than half an hour.” The next morning, she says that Maxwell told her, “You did well. The prince had fun.” Later, Epstein gave her US $15,000 in cash. 2. She was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew two more times, including during group sex involving other underage girls Roberts Giuffre details her two further alleged assaults by the former Duke of York. The second time was at Epstein’s New York home, where she recalls him allegedly touching the breast of another trafficked girl sitting on his lap. The third was on Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean. “Epstein, Andy, and approximately eight other young girls and I had sex together. The other girls all appeared to be under the age of 18 and didn’t really speak English,” she says of this third time. “Epstein laughed about how they couldn’t really communicate, saying they are the easiest girls to get along with.” 3. An interview she gave about Prince Andrew was spiked out of fear of the network losing access to other royals Roberts Giuffre recounts an interview she conducted with ABC’s Amy Robach, which included her testimony about what she says Prince Andrew did to her. Despite it seeming to have gone well, the interview was delayed and then eventually cancelled entirely. The reason that came to her through the grapevine? The network had decided not to air it in case it endangered their access to royals like Prince William and Kate Middleton, who were just about to get married. 4. Prince Andrew’s team tried to harass her online before the settlement deal In early 2012, Roberts Giuffre reached a settlement agreement with Prince Andrew shortly before her civil suit for sexual abuse against him began depositions. (As with Prince Andrew “voluntarily” giving up use of his Duke of York title just before King Charles‘s historic visit to the Vatican last week, it does seem that the timing of the Queen’s forthcoming Platinum Jubilee played a role in suddenly and swiftly resolving a headline-hogging scandal.) She alleges that the royal “stonewalled” her lawyers for months before this, and seemed to try to cast doubts on her credibility. “Prince Andrew’s team had even gone so far as to hire internet trolls to hassle me,” she writes. She does not disclose the amount of the settlement that was reached, but she does share that she agreed to a one year gag order, “which seemed important to the prince because it ensured his mother’s Platinum Jubilee would not be tarnished any more than it had already been.” 5. The famous men who abused her extend far beyond just her allegations about Prince Andrew “Sexual trafficking should not be a secret, only to be whispered about in hushed tones or not at all. It is a horrible trauma-inducing crime and we must talk about it if we ever want it to end,” she writes at the end of her book. “I’m sorry to say that for all that’s happened, more action is needed. Much more. Because some people still think Epstein was an anomaly, an outlier. And those people are wrong.” Some of the “scores of wealthy and powerful people” she alleges abused her are named in the book, like French modelling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, who she testified against in 2021. Most of them, however, are referred to vaguely for fear, she writes, of retribution. One is a “former Prime Minister” who she alleges violently sexually assaulted her, laughing at her pain, leaving her fearing for her life. “I have the same fears about another man whom I was forced to have sex with many times — a man whom I also saw having sexual contact with Epstein himself,” she writes. “I would love to identify him here. But this man is very wealthy and very powerful, and I fear that he, too, might engage me in expensive, life-ruining litigation.” 6. Roberts Giuffre steps forward as a person, not just an accuser It seems an obvious thing to say about a memoir, but this is Roberts Giuffre’s chance to tell her full story, to speak to us as a three-dimensional human being, rather than as a campaigner necessarily laser-focused on just three years of her life in a fight for justice. While a significant portion of this book is dedicated to the story of how she was trafficked as a teenager by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell and flown around the world to be abused by this couple and whoever else they decided to “loan” her to, there is just as much time spent on other details of her life. Some are equally harrowing, like the years of sexual abuse she alleges was perpetrated on her by her own father and one of his friends, and her mother who seemingly refused to acknowledge what was happening. Others are touching, like the naive hope that she might actually train to be a professional massage therapist, which led her into Epstein’s home in the first place, or her love for the three children she had after she’d escaped and moved to Australia. Others underscore the cost of her public advocacy, like the death threats, intimidation and paparazzi hounding that came with sharing her story, and the physical and mental health toll rehashing this trauma took on her. In all, however, it is Roberts Giuffre’s voice that you remember: Intelligent, persistent, vulnerable, brave.
