Email appears to confirm photo of former Prince Andrew and Virginia Giuffre is real

A photograph appearing to show then-Prince Andrew with Jeffrey Epstein's accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre and Ghislaine Maxwell. (Southern District of New York via CNN Newsource)

Warning: This story mentions suicide.

A newly released email appears to confirm the authenticity of a photograph of Britain’s Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor with his arm around the waist of Virginia Giuffre, one of the most prominent victims of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking ring.

The disgraced former prince has long denied allegations he sexually assaulted Giuffre while she was a teenager and had previously questioned whether the now-infamous photo had been doctored.

But in the trove of new documents released by the U.S. Justice Department last week is a 2015 email to Epstein purportedly from his former girlfriend and longtime accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell that suggests the image of Andrew and Giuffre is real.

The message was headed “draft statement” and sent by a “G Maxwell” to the late convicted sex offender in January 2015.

“It was in London when (redacted) met a number of friends of mine including Prince Andrew. A photograph was taken as I imagine she wanted to show it to friends and family,” the email reads.

Details in the statement and subsequent emails from Epstein the same day indicate the redacted name was Giuffre.

Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for child sex trafficking and other crimes, also appears in the photograph.

The message adds that “G Maxwell” did not see “anything improper that took place at my home.”

In a separate email to Epstein, “G Maxwell” said, “I have to distance myself from you in statement too. And they need me to say I was not aware of massage (with) andrew in my house.”

CNN has approached Maxwell’s representatives and has attempted to contact Mountbatten-Windsor’s representatives for comment.

‘Nobody can prove whether or not that photograph has been doctored’

The Epstein scandal has dogged Mountbatten-Windsor for years, culminating in him being stripped of his royal titles and ordered to leave the Royal Lodge on the Crown’s Windsor Estate by his brother, King Charles III, last year.

Giuffre’s family told British public broadcaster BBC that the release of the email was a “vindicating moment.”

“It shows that not only was she not lying this entire time … she was telling the truth,” Giuffre’s brother Sky Roberts said.

“It’s a moment where we’re really proud of our sister. I think that it is a vindicating moment, but we also want to use this as a moment to remind people to believe survivors,” Roberts added.

Giuffre, who died by suicide in 2025, repeatedly claimed that she was forced to have sex with the then-prince while underage on three occasions – in London, New York and at Little St. James, colloquially known as Epstein Island. She claimed that Mountbatten-Windsor was aware she was underage in the US when they were introduced.

Mountbatten-Windsor has denied all of Giuffre’s accusations and says he does not recall ever meeting her. In 2022, he reached a settlement with Giuffre, settling a sex abuse lawsuit. While he didn’t admit wrongdoing, Andrew did acknowledge Giuffre’s suffering as a victim of sex trafficking.

“I have no recollection of ever meeting this lady, none whatsoever,” Mountbatten-Windsor told the BBC in a bombshell television interview in 2019.

He said in the same sit-down that he had “no recollection of the photograph ever being taken,” and added that while it was him in the photo, “we can’t be certain” as to whether it’s his hand on her.

When pressed to clarify whether he believed the photo was fake, Mountbatten-Windsor said: “Nobody can prove whether or not that photograph has been doctored,” adding, “but I don’t recollect that photograph ever being taken.”

Maxwell had also previously claimed the image was not real. Speaking from a Florida jail to British broadcaster TalkTV in 2023, Maxwell said she doesn’t “believe it is real for a second, in fact, I’m sure it’s not. There has never been an original.”

In her posthumous memoir “Nobody’s Girl,” Giuffre detailed the day the photo was taken when she first met Mountbatten-Windsor at Maxwell’s townhouse in London on March 10, 2001, when she was 17. She said she was forced to have sex with Andrew a few hours later.

Giuffre said the photo was taken with her disposable Kodak FunSaver camera and she developed the photo a few days later in West Palm Beach on March 13, 2001. Giuffre said she showed the photo to The Mail on Sunday reporter Sharon Churcher and photographer Michael Thomas during an interview in Australia in 2011, when Thomas took photos of the original print.

A day after the photograph was published in the British press, Mountbatten-Windsor emailed Epstein saying: “It would seem we are in this together and will have to rise above it… Otherwise keep in close touch and we’ll play some more soon!!!!,” the DOJ documents show.

The exchange contradicts claims Mountbatten-Windsor made to the BBC that he severed all ties with Epstein in 2010.

Separately, an email sent by Epstein on July 1, 2011, to a recipient who has been redacted in the published documents said: “Yes she was on my plane, and yes she had her picture taken with Andrew as many of my employees have.” The email doesn’t name which individual he is talking about, but details again indicate it was Giuffre.

The latest tranche of documents, which include photographs appearing to show Mountbatten-Windsor on all fours, leaning over a woman or girl lying on the floor has ramped up the political pressure on the disgraced royal. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has called on Mountbatten-Windsor to testify before the US Congress about his links to Epstein.

By Helen Regan, CNN

CNN’s Todd Symons, Max Foster and Lauren Said-Moorhouse contributed reporting.

If you or someone you know is in crisis or struggling with mental illness, here are some resources that are available.

Canada Suicide Crisis Helpline (Call or text 988)

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (1-800-463-2338)

Crisis Services Canada (1-833-456-4566 or text 45645)

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If you need immediate assistance call 911 or go to the nearest hospital.