By Daniela Pizzirani and Dannielle Maguire, ABC News
An undated handout photo taken at an undisclosed location and released on 2 December 2021 by the United States District Couty for the Southern District of New York shows Virginia Giuffre. Photo: HANDOUT / AFP
Warning: This story contains discussion of suicide and sexual abuse.
Virginia Giuffre, formerly known as Virginia Roberts, has died at her farm in Western Australia, aged 41.
The prominent accuser of Jeffrey Epstein and Prince Andrew died by suicide.
She's being remembered for her "incredible courage" in speaking out against abuse and pursuing justice for victims.
As friends, loved ones and supporters grieve her death, this is how she came to the public spotlight.
Targeted by Epstein
The American-born mother, who lived in Australia for years, became an advocate for sex trafficking survivors after alleging she had been groomed and sexually abused by Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
Epstein, a wealthy, well-connected New York money manager, died by suicide in August 2019 while awaiting trial on US federal sex trafficking charges involving dozens of teenage girls and young women, some as young as 14.
The charges came 14 years after police in Florida first began investigating allegations that he sexually abused underage girls who were hired to give him massages.
Giuffre came forward publicly in 2010 after Epstein made a secret deal to avoid federal prosecution the year prior.
'They knew how vulnerable I was'
Giuffre said she was a teenage spa attendant at President Donald Trump's Palm Beach club when she was approached in 2000 by Epstein's girlfriend and later employee, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Giuffre said Maxwell offered her an interview for the chance to train as a massage therapist.
"I ran over to my dad who works on the tennis courts at Mar-a-Lago [the Palm Beach club], and he knows I'm trying to fix my life up at that point, which is why he got me the job there," she said in a BBC interview in 2020.
"I said: 'You're not going to believe it, dad'," she recalled.
"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…
"I was a baby stuck in a world where grown-ups were allowed to do whatever they wanted, and I was lost.
"That was the worst thing I could have told them because now they knew how vulnerable I was."
Accusations against Prince Andrew
Giuffre alleged the couple effectively made her a sexual servant, pressuring her into gratifying not only Epstein but his friends and associates.
She said she was flown around the world to have sex with men, including Prince Andrew, while she was 17 and 18.
"In the car, Ghislaine tells me that I have to do for Andrew what I do for Jeffrey and that just made me sick," she told the BBC.
"I wasn't expecting that from royalty. I knew I had to keep [Prince Andrew] happy because that's what Jeffrey and Ghislaine would expect of me."
Prince Andrew and Epstein both denied these claims.
Some parts of her story were supported by documents, witness testimony and photos - including one of her and Andrew, with his arm around her.
An undated handout photo taken at an undisclosed location and released on 9 August 2021 by the United States District Couty for the Southern District of New York shows (L-R) Prince Andrew, Virginia Giuffre, and Ghislaine Maxwell posing for a photo. Virginia Giuffre, who accused disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein and Britain's Prince Andrew of sexual abuse, has taken her own life at her home in Australia, her family said on 26 April 2025. Photo: HANDOUT / AFP
Going public against royalty
Speaking up against a member of the royal family put Giuffre in the spotlight.
Instead of shying away from the harsh media glare, she stared down the barrel of the BBC cameras, asking the UK public to "stand beside her".
"This is not some sordid sex story. This is a story of being trafficked," she said.
"This is a story of abuse and this is a story of your guys' royalty."
Prince Andrew "categorically" denied having sex with Giuffre.
He retired from public duties, however, and was stripped of his military titles.
He reached a settlement with Giuffre in 2022, reportedly making a substantial donation to Giuffre's charity in support of victims' rights.
Founding SOAR
Later in life, Giuffre became a fierce advocate for victims' rights, founding an advocacy charity, SOAR, in 2015, and using her story to lift survivors out of a broken system.
"Being a mother, being a wife, being a daughter, I feel like it's my responsibility," she said in a 2020 interview.
"I know what is right and what is wrong, and I couldn't imagine my kids going through what I went through.
"I feel like it's everyone's responsibility in the world to not let our children grow up in an era where sex trafficking is the most profitable industry in the world.
"Money should not be able to buy you the power to help you get away with hurting people."
Her words reached an even larger audience in 2020 via the four-part Netflix documentary Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich.
By this point, Epstein was dead.
And yet, Giuffre continued to speak out.
"The monsters are still out there," she told Netflix. "You took our freedom… now we're going to take yours."
In 2021, after the previously redacted testimony of Maxwell was unsealed, she was convicted on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
She said she wasn't to blame for Epstein's abuse.
"With more transparency, I am hopeful that all who helped perpetrate these heinous crimes will be held accountable." Giuffre said.
Her words made waves, unsettled the elite and inspired a movement that would outlive her.
"She was the light that lifted so many survivors," her family said in a statement. "Despite all the adversity she faced in her life, she shone so bright. She will be missed beyond measure."
She is survived by her three children.
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