Prince Andrew’s former girlfriend claims that the famous photo of him at Ghislaine Maxwell’s home with his accuser, is fake.
Lady Victoria Hervey briefly dated the Duke of York in 1999 and floated the strange theory on Instagram, adding a new take on the sexual abuse allegations against the prince.
In a series of posts, Hervey tries to pick apart the authenticity of the photo of the prince with his arm around accuser Virginia Giuffre. Maxwell is standing in the background.
Ms Giuffre included the photo in her complaint against the duke claiming that it was taken on the night she was first forced to have sex with him, aged 17. She alleges she was forced to have sex with him on four occasions after being trafficked by Maxwell and billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The duke denies all of the allegations against him.
Hervey alleges in her Instagram story that because Ms Giuffre wore the same clothes at an event in the south of France, the image of her with the prince cannot have been taken at Maxwell’s house in London.
She appears to allege that the image of Ms Giuffre was then added to a photo including a body double of the prince with his head photoshopped onto it.
Hervey includes several images in her post. These include Ms Giuffre and Maxwell together on a yacht in France at Naomi Campbell’s birthday, in which the 17-year-old does appear to be wearing the same outfit.
Another is an image of Ms Giuffre with the background of the London home painted out and with the addition of a coat she had over her arm when in France. The coat is in place of where the prince is standing in the image made famous by the complaint.
Yet another is a photo of a man she claims is the body double, who she says was “dating one of Epstein’s girls”. The man does not appear to resemble the prince and is wearing a different style of shirt.
Ms Giuffre gave the original photo of her, Prince Andrew, and Maxwell to the FBI in 2011 and claims it is authentic.
Another Epstein victim, Carolyn Andriano, who testified against Maxwell at her trial has backed her up, recalling how Ms Giuffre texted her from London saying who she was with and that she was going to see if she could get a picture of the three of them.
Ms Giuffre then showed the photo to her on her return from the trip.
Prince Andrew claimed in his November 2019 interview with the BBC: “You can’t prove whether or not that photograph is faked or not because it is a photograph of a photograph of a photograph.”
He added that he does not remember it being taken.
Hervey wrote in a separate post, after wondering about the age of consent in the UK ahead of a live TV appearance: “Some of these stories sound like a case study of Regret turning into Revenge. This story has been so blown out of proportion. Or has it. Nobody knows.”
She continued: “People are literally murdering people in LA and getting out of jail. It’s a real life gotham city blood bath.”
“I know Ghislaine is obviously not a saint and should pay back the trauma caused to her ‘victims’ but lifetime in jail for touching a girls t*t 20 years ago and taking them on yacht, private jet and shopping trips,” she added. “Come on. This has become a witch 🧙🏼♀️ hunt.”
Maxwell was found guilty of five of the six charges against her at her sex trafficking trial in a court in New York in December 2021. Ms Giuffre did not testify, but those who did backed up many of her allegations.
Ms Giuffre is suing Prince Andrew for emotional harm and battery. Prince Andrew is demanding that he receive a jury trial in New York.
