Prince Andrew’s Legal & PR Costs Reportedly Skyrocket to Nearly $3 Million in Sexual Assault Case
© AP Photo / Steve Parsons
Virginia Giuffre, a “sex slave” working for late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has claimed that she had sex with the Duke of York on three occasions, including when she was 17. She has filed a civil lawsuit against the royal demanding an unspecified amount in damages. The prince has strongly denied the allegations, saying he’s never met then, woman.
Prince Andrew’s legal and PR costs have soared to nearly $3 million as the royal is engaged in a battle against Virginia Giuffre, an American woman who has claimed that disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein trafficked her to the Duke of York, according to the Sunday Times.
Queen Elizabeth’s second son’s costs are spiraling with high-profile attorneys, who have represented a plethora of celebrities in sex assault cases, including comedian Bill Cosby and actor Armie Hammer.
Prince Andrew’s legal team in England is said to include Clare Montgomery, a leading expert on extradition law who once defended Augusto Pinochet, and Stephen Ferguson, who represented the Adams Family crime syndicate in the UK. According to the Times, Gary Bloxsome, a solicitor advocate dubbed “Good News, Gary” is also part of the duke’s team.
As for the United States, the prince has reportedly hired top Hollywood lawyer Andrew Brettler, an attorney for ‘Sex And The City actor Chris Noth, currently facing his own accusations of sexual assault from several women.
Prince Andrew, ninth in line to the throne, is believed to be selling a Swiss chalet that he purchased in 2014 with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson for over $23 million, in a bid to cover his skyrocketing legal costs. Meanwhile, The Telegraph cited several sources claiming that Queen Elizabeth II could be asked to fund her son’s potential settlement with Giuffre. The payoff could exceed £5 million ($6.7 million), an amount that the prince is likely to be unable to fork out on his own.
Virginia Giuffre, now 38, claims she was forced into an intimate relationship with Prince Andrew on at least three occasions. The American woman, who currently resides in Australia, said that back in 2001 when she was 17, she was trafficked to London by Jeffrey Epstein and his “pimp” Ghislaine Maxwell. There, she was forced to have sex with the Duke of York. The royal has strongly denied the accusation, insisting that he had no recollection of ever meeting the woman.
At least two people claim to have witnessed the prince with the young Giuffre – at a London nightclub and on Epstein’s private island. A third witness in the Ghislaine Maxwell trial has claimed that Giuffre told her about the alleged sexual intercourse with Prince Andrew and showed a photograph depicting the two together.
In August 2021, Guiffre filed a civil lawsuit against the prince in a New York federal court, accusing him of sexual assault and demanding an unspecified amount in damages. The duke’s legal team is now fighting to have the lawsuit thrown out, citing a recently unsealed settlement she had reached with Epstein, under which the convicted sex offender paid her $500,000. In exchange, she agreed to forfeit the right to sue any “other person or entity who could have been included as a potential defendant”.
