Ghislaine Maxwell claims in jailhouse interview that Prince Andrew photo with Virginia Giuffre is 'fake'
Convicted child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell has said a decades-old photograph of Prince Andrew with his sexual abuse accuser Virginia Giuffre is "fake," in a series of interviews from prison.
The disgraced British socialite is currently serving a 20-year sentence in U.S. federal prison for carrying out a years-long scheme with her longtime confidante Jeffrey Epstein to groom and sexually abuse underage girls.
Speaking from a Florida jail to UK broadcaster TalkTV, which aired a special program on Monday night, the 61-year-old -- who also appears in the photograph -- said she doesn't "believe it happened."
"I don't believe it is real for a second, in fact, I'm sure it's not. There has never been an original. I don't believe it happened and certainly, the way it's described would have been impossible. I don't have any memory of going to Tramp [nightclub]," Maxwell said.
Prince Andrew, who is one of King Charles III's younger brothers, has strenuously denied Giuffre's allegation that he was introduced to her at London's Tramp nightclub in 2001 with Maxwell, before then-17-year-old Giuffre was allegedly forced to perform sex acts with the British royal.
Giuffre filed a civil lawsuit in a U.S. court in 2021 against Andrew, who is also known as the Duke of York, alleging sexual abuses while she was a minor on multiple occasions. Andrew later settled out of court for an undisclosed figure without admitting any wrongdoing and the case was dismissed. Still, the allegations against the senior royal severely tarnished his reputation. He stepped back from royal duties in late 2019 and was stripped of his military titles and royal patronages last year.
Maxwell appeared to show little remorse to Epstein's victims and offered no apology in the interviews broadcast Monday. Instead, she said the victims should "take their disappointment and upset out on the authorities who allowed" the billionaire pedophile to die in prison.
Maxwell also told TalkTV that she believes Epstein was murdered -- a conspiracy theory for which she offered no evidence. Authorities ruled Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while he was awaiting trial on federal charges accusing him of sexually abusing underage girls.
Regarding the victims, Maxwell said, "I hope they have some closure via the judicial process that took place."
Maxwell acknowledged during her sentencing hearing last year that she had been convicted in the sex trafficking scheme but stopped short of taking responsibility. She did not testify in her defence during the trial in late 2021, which ended with her conviction on five counts, including sex trafficking of a minor.
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