Virginia Giuffre, one of the most prominent survivors of
Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse, passed away at 41. According to her family, Giuffre died in Neergabby, Australia, where she had been living for several years. The 41-year-old, as per her family, died by suicide.
Giuffre was one of the earliest and loudest voices calling for criminal charges against Epstein and his enablers. Giuffre also provided critical information to law enforcement that contributed to the investigation into and later the conviction of Epstein’s associate,
Ghislaine Maxwell, and other investigations by the US attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Giuffre had accused Prince Andrew of the British Royal Family of sexual abuse, claiming that the senior member of the British Royal Family had sex with her three times.
What happened?
Giuffre’s family shared via a statement to NBC News, "It is with utterly broken hearts that we announce that Virginia passed away last night at her farm in Western Australia. She lost her life to suicide, after being a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking.”
The statement read, "Virginia was a fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking. She was the light that lifted so many survivors," the statement said. “In the end, the toll of abuse is so heavy that it became unbearable for Virginia to handle its weight."
Notably, Giuffre was involved in a car crash just a month ago.
In an Instagram post on March 30, Giuffre had shared a photo of herself lying in a hospital bed with her face covered in bruises. Revealing that she has gone into renal failure, she wrote, “This year has been the worst start to a new year, but I won’t bore anyone with the details but I think it important to note that when a school bus driver comes at you driving 110km as we were slowing for a turn that no matter what your car is made of it might as well be a tin can.”
She added, “They've given me four days to live, transferring me to a specialist hospital in urology,” saying that she was “ready to go” and hoped to see her children “one last time.”
She concluded the post by thanking her supporters, writing, “Thank you all for being the wonderful people of the world and for being a great part of my life.”
Who is Virginia Giuffre?
Virginia Louise Giuffre (née Roberts) is an American-Australian campaigner who offers support to victims of sex trafficking. She is a victim of the sex trafficking ring of Jeffrey Epstein.
Giuffre created Victims Refuse Silence, a non-profit based in the United States, in 2015. In November 2021, it was relaunched under the name Speak Out, Act, Reclaim (SOAR). Giuffre has given detailed accounts to many American and British reporters about her experiences of being trafficked by Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
Born to parents Sky and Lynn Roberts, Virginia reportedly came from a "troubled home" and, from the age of seven, was molested by a close family friend.
She said on Panorama in 2019, "I was just so mentally scarred already at such a young age, and I ran away from that."
She also told the Miami Herald that she went from being in "an abusive situation, to being a runaway, to living in foster homes".
Virginia lived on the streets at age 14, where she says she found only "hunger and pain and [more] abuse". Later, she was abused by a 65-year-old sex trafficker, Ron Eppinger, in Miami, with whom she lived for approximately 6 months.
Eppinger reportedly ran a front business for international sex trafficking known as the modeling agency "Perfect 10". He was raided by the FBI and later pleaded guilty to charges of alien smuggling for prostitution, interstate travel for prostitution, and money laundering.
At the age of 14, Giuffre reunited with her father and returned to live with him. Her father worked as a maintenance manager at the Mar-a-Lago property owned by Donald Trump, and also helped Giuffre obtain a job there.
Brush with Epstein:
In mid-2000, Giuffre met Ghislaine Maxwell (a British socialite and daughter of the late media tycoon Robert Maxwell) when working as a spa attendant at Donald Trump's private Mar-a-Lago club, who offered her a potential job working for Epstein as a traveling masseuse with the assurance that no experience was necessary.
When Giuffre arrived at Epstein's Palm Beach home, Giuffre revealed that he was lying naked down and Maxwell told her how to massage him, saying, "They seemed like nice people so I trusted them, and I told them I'd had a really hard time in my life up until then—I'd been a runaway, I'd been sexually abused, physically abused. ... That was the worst thing I could have told them because now they knew how vulnerable I was."
Giuffre has stated that after Maxwell introduced her to Jeffrey Epstein, the two quickly began grooming her to provide sexual services under the guise that she was to be trained as a professional massage therapist.
Between 2000 and 2002, Giuffre was closely associated with Epstein and Maxwell, traveling between Epstein's residences in Palm Beach and Manhattan (at the Herbert N. Straus House), with additional trips to Epstein's Zorro ranch in New Mexico and private island Little Saint James.
Allegations against Prince Andrew:
In March 2001, Giuffre was allegedly trafficked to Prince Andrew, as she stated in an interview that it was a "wicked" and "really scary time" in her life and that she "couldn't comprehend how in the highest level of the government powerful people were allowing this to happen. Not just allowing but participating in it". After visiting a nightclub, Giuffre revealed that Maxwell told her that she, "had to do for Andrew what I do for Jeffrey".
In court documents from a civil suit that were released from the seal in 2019, Giuffre named several others that she claims Epstein and Maxwell instructed her to have sex with, including hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin, attorney Alan Dershowitz, politician Bill Richardson, the late MIT scientist Marvin Minsky, lawyer George J. Mitchell, and MC2 modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel. Many of the men denied Giuffre's allegations.
Legal proceedings:
In March 2005, while Giuffre was still establishing her family in Australia, the Palm Beach Police Department began investigating Epstein after a 14-year-old girl and her parents reported his behavior.
In May 2009, Giuffre filed a lawsuit as Jane Doe 102 against Epstein and accused Maxwell of recruiting her to a life of being sexually trafficked while she was a minor.
By late 2009, dozens of Epstein's victims had filed civil lawsuits against him. All suits were settled for undisclosed amounts.
In January 2022, unsealed documents revealed that the settlement amount of the 2009 case, entitled Jane Doe No. 102 vs. Jeffrey Epstein, was $500,000 (equivalent to $733,000 in 2024) and other unspecified "valuable consideration."
Giuffre credited the birth of her daughter on January 7, 2010, as the date she decided to come forward publicly and begin speaking out about her experiences of sexual abuse and trafficking, despite the risks.
As per a Vanity Fair report, Giuffre's story was first publicized in March 2011 by the Mail on Sunday; the coverage included the photo showing Prince Andrew with his arm around her at Maxwell's house in Belgravia, London. FBI agents again made contact with Giuffre, this time at the US consulate in Sydney in 2011, soon after she went public with allegations against Epstein.
Giuffre sued Prince Andrew in 2021, alleging he forced her into sex on three occasions between 1999 and 2002 in London, New York, and on Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean.
The court filing read, “During each of the aforementioned incidents, [Giuffre] was compelled by express or implied threats by Epstein, Maxwell, and/or Prince Andrew to engage in sexual acts with Prince Andrew, and feared death or physical injury to herself or another and other repercussions for disobeying Epstein, Maxwell, and Prince Andrew due to their powerful connections, wealth, and authority.”
The case was settled out of court in February 2022, with the settlement amount undisclosed.
In a previous statement to PEOPLE, Giuffre said, “I am holding Prince Andrew accountable for what he did to me. The powerful and rich are not exempt from being held responsible for their actions. I hope that other victims will see that it is possible not to live in silence and fear, but to reclaim one's life by speaking out and demanding justice.”
Prince Andrew has denied all allegations, stating in a 2019 BBC interview, “I have no recollection of ever meeting this lady, none whatsoever. It just never happened.”
While Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted of child sex trafficking in 2021 in connection with Epstein, Epstein died by suicide in August 2019 in a New York City jail while awaiting trial on child sex trafficking charges.
Personal life:
In September 2002, at the age of 19, Giuffre flew to Thailand and attended the International Training Massage School in Chiang Mai. While at the massage school in Thailand in 2002, she met Robert Giuffre, an Australian martial arts trainer, and the two married quickly thereafter.
After her marriage to Robert Giuffre, Virginia contacted Epstein and informed him that she would not be returning as planned.
The Giuffres started a life and family in Australia, and Virginia broke off contact with Epstein and Maxwell. For five years, Giuffre and her husband lived in Glenning Valley on the Central Coast, New South Wales, for 11 years.
The family relocated to the United States in November 2013 and stayed for several years, initially spending time in Florida, and later in Colorado in 2015.
In 2019, it was reported that Giuffre lived in Cairns, Queensland, with her husband Robert and their three children: two sons and one daughter.
In 2020, she moved with her family to Ocean Reef in Perth, Western Australia.
In April 2025, Giuffre died in Neergabby, Australia, by suicide.
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