NEW YORK — Prince Andrew took a royal beating Tuesday in a sudden Manhattan court settlement for his alleged sexual assault of a 17-year-old girl provided by Jeffrey Epstein.
The 61-year-old British royal, who had previously disparaged and denied ever meeting accuser Virginia Giuffre, agreed to the unexpected and reportedly pricey deal. The amount of the payout was not made public, but reports in the British media put the cost at $13.5 million.
“Prince Andrew has never intended to malign Miss Giuffre’s character, and he accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks,” read the brief statement filed in Manhattan Federal Court.
“It is known that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked countless young girls over many years,” the statement continued. “Prince Andrew regrets his association with Epstein, and commends the bravery of Ms. Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others.”
The deal was struck less than two months after the late December conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell for grooming teenage girls to be sexually abused by the wealthy trafficker Epstein. Maxwell faces up to 65 years in prison at her June 28 sentencing.
David Boies, attorney for plaintiff Giuffre, 38, issued a one-sentence statement: “I believe the event speaks for itself.”
The now-backpedaling Prince Andrew promised to atone for his association with Epstein by “supporting the fight against the evils of sex trafficking and by supporting its victims.”
In addition to once denying that he ever met a then-underaged Giuffre, the prince had also suggested that a notorious photo showing Andrew with his arm around the teen’s back was doctored. The picture was taken inside Maxwell’s London townhouse.
The prince’s reputation was already in tatters before the deal was announced. His mother, Queen Elizabeth, stripped him of his military and royal duties earlier this year and said Andrew would defend himself in Giuffre’s suit as a private citizen.
The queen’s stunning rebuke of her son came a day after Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled Giuffre’s sex abuse case against Andrew could proceed.
Andrew, in the statement announcing the agreement, said he regretted his friendship with Epstein, who committed suicide inside his Manhattan jail cell in 2019, and vowed to make a “substantial donation” to Giuffre’s charity supporting sex abuse victims.
“He pledges to demonstrate his regret for his association with Epstein by supporting the fight against the evils of sex trafficking, and by supporting its victims,” his statement read.
Attorneys not involved in the case said there was little doubt the prince paid a king’s ransom in the deal.
“The $13 million sounds like a good number in this case,” said veteran New York attorney Ron Kuby, with his thoughts echoed by Los Angeles trial attorney Christa Ramey.
“The settlement has to have been settled for a substantial amount of money because it involved Prince Andrew and it was reached relatively early in the case,” she said.
There was no sign of an impending agreement this past October when attorneys for the prince alleged Giuffre’s lawsuit was motivated by greed.
”Most people could only dream of obtaining the sums of money that Giuffre has secured for herself over the years,” read the court paperwork. ”This presents a compelling motive for Giuffre to continue filing frivolous lawsuits against individuals such as Prince Andrew, whose sullied reputation is only the latest collateral damage of the Epstein scandal.”
Andrew created a royal mess in November 2019 when he gave a disastrous BBC interview, saying Epstein had “quite obviously conducted himself in a manner unbecoming.” Andrew also had a bizarre explanation for Giuffre’s recollection that he was “sweating all over” her on a dance floor in 2001.
“I have a peculiar medical condition, which is that I don’t sweat — or I didn’t sweat at the time — because I had suffered what I would describe as an overdose of adrenaline in the Falklands War when I was shot at,” he claimed. “And it was almost impossible for me to sweat.”
____
