In the wake of Prince Andrew’s explosive Jeffrey Epstein interview and move to step down from his royal duties, Woman’s Day exclusively revealed in 2018 that his accuser Virginia Roberts is residing in Australia with her husband. This article was originally published in Woman’s Day‘s magazine issue from November 12, 2018.
When reports rocked the world that The Queen’s second son, the Duke of York was embroiled in a sex scandal with an underage female, Buckingham Palace emphatically denied allegations.
The news broke in January 2015, and the palace immediately stepped in to defend the honour of Prince Andrew and quash the shock rumours.
Prince Andrew, who’d earned the nickname of “randy Andy” was holidaying in a rented $42,000-a-week luxury Swiss ski chalet at the time and was forced to rush back to the UK to face the press and his family.
And there were no two people more distraught by his alleged antics than his daughters Princesses Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.
The ordeal left the royal siblings lives in tatters.
Now, years on, Andrew’s sordid past has come back to haunt them once more!
Virginia will never escape the scandal rumours.
(Image: Jeff Rayner/Coleman-Rayner)
Virginia leads a quiet, happy life with her husband Robert.
(Image: Jeff Rayner/Coleman-Rayner)In a bombshell revelation, the American teenager who accused Prince Andrew of sleeping with her three times when she was only 17 has resurfaced, and it’s been revealed she’s living a secret life in Far North Queensland.
Virginia Roberts, now known by her married name of Giuffre, has turned her life around following the allegations, and lives in the tropical paradise of Cairns with her Australian husband Robert and their three school-aged children.
Aged 33, she resides in a quiet community surrounded by palm trees – a million miles away from the nightclub in London in which Prince Andrew is said to have seduced her as a teenager.
Some of the newspaper covers at the time.
(Image: The Daily News)
Prince Andrew vehemently denied the claims.
(Image: The Mail on Sunday)Speaking for the first time since settling a civil case in which she claimed she worked as a “sex slave” for American billionaire and convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who procured her for sex with Prince Andrew on multiple occasions while she was still a minor under US law, Virginia conceded that she is happy with her new beginnings, and that her husband of 16 years, whom she married after 10 days of dating in Thailand, is “very protective of me.”
It’s little wonder that Robert, who grew up just outside of Sydney, whisked his wife and their young kids to the remote far North Queensland city.
When she made the extraordinary claims against Jeffrey and his long-time friend Andrew three years ago, Virginia was forced to flee her native Florida in fear.
She ended up living in a mobile home in country Colorado, with her aunt Carol telling media at the time she was scared of retribution from powerful men.
WATCH: Prince Andrew vehemently denies sex scandal claims. Post continues after the video…
Prince Andrew dancing and living it up in St Tropez in 2007.
(Image: Jeff Rayner/Coleman-Rayner)As part of her claims, Virginia alleged that Jeffrey’s then girlfriend Ghislane Maxwell had recruited her as a 15-year-old to perform sexual favours, and “to be everything a man wanted”. It was said that she flew around the world under the guise of being Jeffrey’s preferred masseuse.
Diary entries and court papers from Virginia told of sleeping with The Queen’s son on three occasions – the first time being in London.
Virginia wrote of meeting Prince Andrew, and says Ghislane encouraged him to “guess her age”. After a group dinner, Virginia says she escorted Prince Andrew to Club Tramp.
“He was the most incredibly hideous dancer I had ever seen… we only stayed at the club for a little over an hour before his highness was dripping from sweat and ready to embark to another quieter setting, where we could get to know each other better, and from the way he was fondling me on the dance floor, I knew that was a man’s polite way of saying he wanted to intimately get acquainted.
The Duke of York with a blonde woman in St Tropez in 2007.
(Image: Jeff Rayner/Coleman-Rayner)“He was caressing every part of my naked body and filling my head with endless compliments about my blossoming figure. The entire affair was short-lived, when his climax was achieved he was not the same attentive guy I had known for the last few hours,” she wrote.
“Instead, [he] quickly got dressed, said his goodbyes and slipped out of my bedroom to the driver still waiting for him outside.”
Virginia penned that it was a “first for me” but that she was “fearful” of letting down the Prince, Jeffrey, and Ghislane.
As part of civil papers against Jeffrey, Virginia alleged she had sex with Andrew – who is currently on cloud nine following the marriage of his daughter Princess Eugenie, 28, to Jack Brooksbank – three times in Jeffrey’s homes in London, New York and his private Caribbean island.
She settled with Ghislane out of court in 2017 for an undisclosed amount, while Buckingham Palace vehemently denied Virginia’s claims in several press statements.
Now, Virginia has swapped jet-setting with rich older men for school runs and afternoons at her local pub. Friends say she loves a drink and plays the “pokies” with her husband.
A brand-new life: The mum-of-three enjoys the tropical climate, the school run and playing the pokies with her husband.
(Image: Jeff Rayner/Coleman-Rayner)They live in a gated community full of families with well-kept homes worth around $500,000, and drive two new-model family cars.
One neighbour, who would only give his name as John, says: “I read a bit in the Cairns Post about that case but I had no idea she lives across the street!”
A bartender at the Smithfield Tavern, where Virginia and Robert are regulars, adds: “They’re both lovely, especially her. I can’t believe she’s involved with all that. It just goes to show that you never know anything about people!”
Virginia lived a tough life in her teens. She was “recruited” by Ghislane at 15 after Jeffrey apparently spotted her picking up towels at Donald Trump’s Florida Mar-A-Lago resort where her dad worked as a groundsman.
The scandal shocked Prince Andrew’s family to the core.
(Image: Getty)
Buckingham Palace emphatically denied the allegations at the time.
(Image: Getty)After learning the truth about her life with Jeffrey and Prince Andrew, the Roberts family say Virginia’s husband, who she married at 19, was her saving grace.
“She met Robbie and turned her life around,” her aunt Carol says.
Sources spill that Robbie has “a heart of gold when it comes to his family, and if he has a fault, it’s that he’s almost too protective of Virginia.
“But you can’t blame the guy, given all she’s been through? Relocating to Cairns was the best decision they ever made.”
“She’s happy with her new life. She’s fairly private, but very polite. Virginia calls people ‘sweetheart’, a lot, which a nice because she’s a real sweetheart herself.”
