‘She declares a victory’: Giuffre’s family after Prince Andrew loses royal status amid renewed scrutiny over Epstein saga

In a statement, the Palace informed that King Charles has initiated a formal process to remove the “style, titles and honours of Prince Andrew”, who “will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor”.

The decision comes in the wake of Virginia Giuffre’s posthumous memoir Nobody’s Girl, published this month, which entails an inside account of the two years Giuffre spent as a “sex slave” working for Epstein and co-conspirator Maxwell.

“Today,” Giuffre’s family said, “she declares a victory. She has brought down a British prince with her truth and extraordinary courage,” The Conversation quoted.

‘… He never said anything on it’

The trio’s visit to the 30-room Windsor mansion in 2006, as part of Andrew’s daughter Beatrice’s masked ball 18th birthday celebrations, came just two months after a United States arrest warrant was issued against Epstein for the sexual assault of a minor, as per the report.

Epstein was arrested by police in Florida eight days after the event at Andrew’s private home in the grounds of Windsor Castle.

In an interview to the BBC in 2019, Andrew justified his invitation to Epstein: “Certainly I wasn’t aware when the invitation was issued what was going on in the United States and I wasn’t aware until the media picked up on it because he never said anything about it.”

Epstein, Maxwell ‘regular’ visitors at royal residences in 1990s

Both Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were regular guests at UK’s royal residences in 1990s and early 2000s, according to the BBC.

In 1999, Andrew invited the couple to Balmoral, the royals’ private Highland estate, to stay at the castle, a photograph released by the prosecutors during Maxwell’s sex trafficking trial revealed.

Next in 2000, Epstein arrived at Windsor Castle as a guest, whereas Maxwell was invited to a birthday party hosted by Andrew on his private country retreat at Sandringham, the report shared. Then too, Andrew put up a justification, calling the event “a straightforward shooting weekend”.

A photograph from 2002 obtained by the Daily Telegraph also shows Maxwell sitting on the monarch’s throne at Buckingham Palace beside actor Kevin Spacey, however, Epstein was not a part of that tour.

Further, Andrew has confirmed that he travelled on Epstein’s private jet, stayed at his private island, stayed at his Palm Beach mansion, and visited Maxwell’s home at Belgravia in London, BBC highlighted.

Epstein was charged and arrested in Manhattan in 2019 with federal sex-trafficking offences, with prosecutors accusing him of exploiting dozens of underage girls between 2002 and 2005. He later died by suicide in the New York jail cell, while awaiting trial, which blew up conspiracy theories about foul play.

Meanwhile, Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence in the US for recruiting and trafficking four teenage girls for sexual abuse by Epstein.

Weinstein has also been convicted of sexual assault by courts in New York and Los Angeles, according to the report.