Accuser says Prince Andrew sweated ‘like rain’
The woman who claims she was pressured to have sex with Prince Andrew has accused him of being dishonest about his ability to sweat in her first UK interview.
Virginia Roberts Giuffrehas repeatedly said she was trafficked by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and allegedly had sex with Prince Andrew in 2001 when she was 17 years old.
The prince has strenuously denied he had “any form of sexual contact or relationship” with Mrs Roberts Giuffre, adding “any claim to the contrary is false and without foundation”.
But in her first UK interview, Mrs Roberts Giuffre has disputed a number of the duke’s claims and said: “He knows what happened. I know what happened, and there’s only one of us telling the truth.”
Last month, the Duke of York spoke to BBC Newsnight after Mrs Roberts Giuffre gave a detailed interview to NBC.
In that interview he countered her claims that he sweated by saying he had lost the ability to do so following his service in the Falklands War.
Mrs Roberts Giuffre, in an interview on the BBC to be broadcast this evening, disputed this.
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Talking about their meeting in the London nightclub Tramp, she said: “He is the most hideous dancer I’ve ever seen in my life.
“I mean it was horrible and this guy was sweating all over me, like his sweat was like it was raining basically everywhere I was just like grossed out from it but I knew I had to keep him happy because that’s what Jeffrey and Ghislaine would have expected from me.”
Then known as Virginia Roberts, she says she was brought to London by Jeffrey Epstein and his partner Ghislaine Maxwell in 2001 and was introduced to the prince.
Later that evening, she claims she was instructed to have sex with the duke.
She told the BBC: “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 says that later that evening, she had sex with Prince Andrew upstairs at Ms Maxwell’s house in Belgravia.”
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Mrs Roberts Giuffre also said claims the photo showing the duke with his arm around her aged 17-year-old is fake are “BS”.
She said: “The people on the inside are going to keep coming up with these ridiculous excuses. Like his arm was elongated or the photo was doctored, or he came to New York to break up with Jeffrey Epstein. I mean come on I’m calling BS on this, because that’s what it is.
“He knows what happened. I know what happened, and there’s only one of us telling the truth, and I know that’s me.”
In response to tonight’s Panorama, Buckingham Palace said the duke “unequivocally regrets his ill-judged association with Jeffrey Epstein” and “deeply sympathises with those affected who want some form of closure”.
They said “it is emphatically denied that the Duke of York had any form of sexual contact or relationship with Virginia Roberts. Any claim to the contrary is false and without foundation”.
Prince Andrew’s responses in his own interview were widely criticised, with many companies who had an association with his charity projects withdrawing their support.
Within a week, Andrew released a statement confirming that he would be stepping back from his public duties.
