LONDON: The family of Prince Andrew’s alleged sexual assault victim has declared that his removal of the Duke of York title vindicates her.
Virginia Giuffre’s brother stated his late sister would feel very proud of this development following further revelations about Andrew’s connections to Jeffrey Epstein.
He revealed they had shed both happy and sad tears upon hearing Friday’s announcement.
“All the years of work that she put in is now coming to some sort of justice,” he told the BBC.
Andrew renounced his royal title under pressure from his brother King Charles III, who seeks to end the embarrassing royal scandal.
The 65-year-old prince will retain his princely status as the second son of the late Queen Elizabeth II despite stepping back from public life in 2019.
Andrew became a major embarrassment to the monarchy after his disastrous 2019 television interview defending his Epstein friendship.
He claimed in that interview to have cut ties with Epstein in 2010, following Giuffre’s accusations that the financier used her as a sex slave.
Newly emerged communications show Andrew telling Epstein in 2011 they were “in this together” after a photo of him with Giuffre was published.
The prince added they would “play together soon” in the exchange reported by UK media this week.
Epstein died by suicide in his New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial for trafficking underage girls.
Giuffre took her own life at her Western Australia farm on April 25 this year.
Her posthumous memoir contains new allegations about Andrew’s behaviour during their encounters.
She wrote in “Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice” that Andrew acted like having sex with her was his “birthright”.
Giuffre detailed having sex with Andrew on three separate occasions, including when she was under 18 years old.
The prince has consistently denied all accusations and settled a civil lawsuit with a multimillion-dollar payment.
Andrew previously lost his military titles in 2022, further diminishing his royal standing.
The former Royal Navy helicopter pilot had been hailed a hero for his service during the 1982 Falklands War. – AFP
