Ghislaine Maxwell says Prince Andrew may not have met Virginia Giuffre

Shamed sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell speaks in first filmed interview from prison – saying she has ‘no memory’ of Prince Andrew ever meeting Virginia Giuffre and claiming picture of Duke with arm around 17-year-old is fake

• Maxwell, 61, insisted she has no recollection of the pair spending time together
• Ms Guiffre claimed she was forced to have sex with the Prince when she was 17
• Read: Duke of York hoping to overturn sex assault settlement struck with Guiffre

Shamed sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell has claimed she has ‘no memory’ of Prince Andrew and Virginia Guiffre – and that the infamous picture of them together is fake.

In her first broadcasted interview since being in prison, Maxwell, 61, has insisted that she has no recollection of the pair spending time together in the UK or the US.  

The infamous snap of the pair, which was reportedly taken in March 2001 at Maxwell’s apartment, was given by Ms Guiffre to The Mail on Sunday in February 2011.

Ms Guiffre, previously Roberts, claimed she was forced to have sex with the Prince when she was 17, having been trafficked by convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who in 2019 was found dead in his prison cell. 

In the revelatory interview, which will be aired on Jeremy Kyle’s TalkTV show tomorrow night at 7pm, Maxwell said: ‘I have no memory of them meeting. And I don’t think that picture is real.

‘It is a fake. I don’t believe it is real for a second, in fact I am sure it is not.

‘There has never been an original, there is no photograph.’ 

Shamed sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell (pictured in the first video speaking from prison) has claimed she has ‘no memory’ of Prince Andrew and Virginia Guiffre – and that the infamous picture of them together is fake

The infamous photo of the Duke of York (left), Virginia Giuffre (middle), and Ghislaine Maxwell (right)

She added: ‘There is no original of that photo, (just) copies of copies and parts of it, according to some experts, look like it has been photoshopped. I don’t remember her in my home.’

Announcing the show, called ‘Ghislaine Behind Bars’, Kyle told viewers: ‘Maxwell lifts the lid on Epstein, Prince Andrew and even our late Queen. This is Ghislaine Maxwell behind bars and in her own words.’ 

The interview comes as Prince Andrew is to launch a dramatic bid to overturn the multi-million-pound settlement he struck with Ms Guiffre in an attempt to get her to retract her sexual assault allegations and possibly secure an apology.

The Duke of York has taken action after Ms Guiffre dropped her lawsuit against Epstein’s former lawyer Alan Dershowitz last year, who she also accused of sexual assault, admitting that she ‘may have made a mistake’ in identifying him. 

Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for procuring girls for her late lover and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, said: ‘I know that Virginia travelled with Jeffrey, and so it’s entirely possible.

Prince Andrew is to launch a dramatic bid to overturn the multi-million-pound settlement he struck with Ms Guiffre in an attempt to get her to retract her sexual assault allegations 

Announcing the show, called ‘Ghislaine Behind Bars’, Kyle told viewers: ‘Maxwell lifts the lid on Epstein.’ Maxwell pictured with Epstein in an undated photograph

‘It wasn’t something so outrageously out of left field that it couldn’t have happened.

‘But the photo doesn’t appear to be real. And I don’t recall it being taken. I have no memory of Virginia and Prince Andrew meeting.’

In February last year, Andrew agreed to pay Virginia, 39, a settlement to drop her civil action but accepted no blame and continues to strenuously deny any wrongdoing. 

But the scandal has significantly damaged his reputation and made him an outcast from the Royal Family. He was stripped of his military titles and asked not to use his HRH title. 

New evidence, as seen by The Mail on Sunday, has led him to consult with lawyers in the US in the hope of forcing a retraction. 

Those close to Andrew have claimed he wanted to fight the allegations in court but was persuaded to agree to a deal by Palace forces who feared the negative publicity of the case would overshadow the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

The revelatory interview, which will be aired on Jeremy Kyle’s TalkTV show tomorrow night at 7pm 

The Duke of York has taken action after Ms Guiffre dropped her lawsuit against Epstein’s former lawyer Alan Dershowitz last year 

‘Andrew felt as if he was in a pressure-cooker, as if he was given no option but to settle,’ a source said. ‘But he never wanted to settle and has always insisted he was innocent. He wants to see what legal routes might be available to him.’

The duke has previously said he has ‘no recollection’ of meeting Ms Giuffre and cast doubt on the picture, claiming he is ‘not one to hug’ or ‘display affection’ in public.

In an interview with BBC Newsnight in 2019, Andrew said while he recognises himself in the picture with Ms Giuffre, he claimed it is not possible to prove whether the image had been faked.

He also claimed the picture could not have been taken in London, as he was in his ‘travelling clothes’.

Ms Giuffre insisted to BBC Panorama the photo was ‘authentic’ and said she gave the original to the FBI in 2011.

In 2019 a BBC Panorama investigation found that Guiffre’s then-boyfriend Tony Figueroa said he saw the picture in the year it was taken – 2001 – and that Ms Guiffre told him she had been forced to have sex with the prince.

Journalist Michael Thomas, who was the first to copy the photograph in 2011, said in the programme that he was convinced the picture is genuine because he found it in the middle of a bundle of photographs.

He said: ‘It wasn’t like she pulled the photo of Prince Andrew out, it was just in amongst the rest of them.

‘They were just typical teenage snaps. There’s no way that photo is fake’.

Last year Prince Andrew’s ex Lady Victoria Hervey said the infamous image was fake.

She claimed it had been pieced together using a photo taken at Naomi Campbell’s birthday party on board a yacht in St Tropez in May 2001, in which Virginia can be seen wearing the same white tank top with colourful patterned jeans.

Lady Victoria however did not have a copy of the exact Virginia photo from St Tropez which she claims was used to fake the Prince Andrew image, and it has never been seen publicly. 

Last year Prince Andrew’s ex Lady Victoria Hervey (pictured) said the infamous image was fake and claimed it had been pieced together 

Lady Victoria added to her baffling claims by saying that an ‘Irish guy’ who was dating one of Epstein’s victims in 2001 and also attended the boat party was used as a ‘body double’ for Prince Andrew in the ‘fake’ image.

Maxwell, who Ms Guiffre also accused of grooming her for sexual abuse, said during the interview: ‘I’ve read a lot of her depositions, and her statements are very categorical and her stories very detailed and elaborate, including claiming that she went to his (Dershowitz’s) house.

‘So I think her ‘memory lapses’ are disingenuous. If her memory is so poor, then how can you rely on anything she says?

‘When you give a lot of details and make claims that last five, six or seven years, and then suddenly at the last moment decide that it was a memory lapse, I find that hard to credit.’

Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year after she was found guilty by a jury of luring young girls to massage rooms for Epstein to molest between 1994 and 2004.

Epstein was found dead in his cell at a federal jail in Manhattan in August 2019 while he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges.

THE TIMELINE OF THE INFAMOUS VIRGINIA GIUFFRE AND PRINCE ANDREW PHOTOGRAPH 

March 2001 – Infamous photograph of Virginia, Ghislaine and Prince Andrew is reportedly taken at Ghislaine’s home in London.

May 2001 – Naomi Campbell hosted a boat party in the French Riviera with Jeffrey Epstein, Virginia, Ghislaine Maxwell all attending.

February 2011 –  Virginia is approached by the Mail On Sunday while she was living a quiet life with her family on Australia’s Central Coast. 

She had been traced by journalist Sharon Churcher, who was investigating reports that the FBI was planning to reopen an investigation into the sexual exploitation of teenagers by Epstein.

Speaking to the Mail on Sunday at the time, she produced the picture of Andrew from a white envelope containing a collection of photos chronicling her teenage years and travels with Epstein to New Mexico and Paris.

She explained that the picture with Andrew was taken at Ms Maxwell’s home after a visit to Tramp nightclub – a claim the Duke disputes.

She claimed the photograph was taken in March 2001, two months before the boat party in St Tropez.  

She told Churcher at the meeting that she had sex with Andrew three times while a teenager, but for legal reasons the MoS could not publish her claims, which the Duke denies.

The photographs are published by the Mail On Sunday.

November 2019 – Andrew hinted that the hand around her waist may not be his. 

Prince Andrew told BBC Newsnight: ‘You can’t prove whether or not that photograph is faked because it’s a photograph of a photograph of a photograph.’

‘It’s very difficult to be able to prove it but I don’t remember that photograph being taken…

‘That’s me but whether that’s my hand…I have simply no recollection of the photograph ever being taken.’ 

December 2019 – Virginia told BBC Panorama that the photo is genuine and she gave the original to the FBI in 2011.

February 2022 – Lady Victoria Hervey says victims of Epstein have told her  the image was photoshopped by Virginia and Maria Farmer.

January 2023 – Maxwell claims the image is fake and that she has not seen an original, only photocopies.

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