Virginia Giuffre is at peace.
Giuffre was laid to rest by her family during a private funeral in Perth, Australia, The West Australian reported on Sunday, May 25.
Giuffre, who publicly accused Prince Andrew of sexually assaulting her when she was a teen in a lawsuit filed in 2021, died by suicide last month. She was 41. (Prince Andrew has denied the allegations.)
“Giuffre lost her life to suicide, after being a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking,” her family said via a statement on April 25. “Virginia was a fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking. She was the light that lifted so many survivors. Despite all the adversity she faced in her life, she shone so bright. She will be missed beyond measure. The light of her life were her children Christian, Noah, and Emily.”
“It was when she held her newborn daughter in her arms that Virginia realized she had to fight back against those who had abused her and so many others,” the statement continued. “There are no words that can express the grave loss we feel today with the passing of our sweet Virginia. She was heroic and will always be remembered for her incredible courage and loving spirit. In the end, the toll of abuse is so heavy that it became unbearable for Virginia to handle its weight. We know that she is with the angels.”
Her attorney, Sigrid McCawley, also paid tribute to the activist following her death via a statement.
“Virginia was much more than a client to me; she was a dear friend and an incredible champion for other victims,” McCawley said. “Her courage pushed me to fight harder, and her strength was awe-inspiring. The world has lost an amazing human being today. Rest in peace, my sweet angel.”
Before her death, Giuffre appeared to be in a custody battle with her estranged husband. The two shared three children, aged 19, 16 and 15. Her brother, Sky Roberts, told People in April that Giuffre hadn’t had access to her kids in months because of her husband’s restraining order filing. (7 News reported in February that Giuffre violated the rules of the restraining order when she texted her husband.)
“It’s the worst pain in the world to not have access to your children,” he said. “Can you imagine the pain? I will tell you, all the physical (pain) will never amount to the pain of being separated from your children in that way.”
Sky’s wife, Amanda Roberts, alleged to the outlet that Giuffre’s husband was physically abusive. “I think the last incident that they had, she almost died,” Amanda claimed of an incident in January. “And we had to speak that truth with her on the phone. And I think she had acknowledged that if she had one more instance with him, she wasn’t making it out of there.”
The pair’s marital problems allegedly date back to at least August 2023. While on a trip to celebrate one of their children’s birthdays in January, Giuffre’s husband allegedly cracked her sternum and perforated one of her eyes — and then filed a family violence restraining order against her. “He just put his in place first,” Sky told People at the time. “Now she’s on the defense.”
Giuffre was also an alleged victim of grooming by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, whose clients reportedly included Prince Andrew. Andrew denied having any memory of meeting Giuffre in a now notorious November 2019 interview with the BBC.
“I never saw them. I mean you have to understand that his house, I described it more as almost as a railway station if you know what I mean in the sense that there were people coming in and out of that house all the time,” he told Emily Maitlis at the time.
The pair settled their lawsuit in 2022.
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