Prince Andrew has now paid his sexual assault accuser, Virginia Giuffre, ending a disturbing court battle that was also tied to the Jeffrey Epstein allegations.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan officially closed the case after Andrew and Giuffre reached a settlement last month. Both parties stated in a recent court filing that they were satisfied with the terms of their agreement.
Giuffre previously accused Epstein of sex-trafficking her in the early 2000s when she was a teenager. During that time, she claimed Prince Andrew sexually assaulted her multiple times in Epstein’s New York homes, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and inside Ghislaine Maxwell’s London residence. Though Andrew has denied having any contact with Giuffre, he did admit to having a friendship with Epstein, which he “regrets.” Nevertheless, he chose to settle with Giuffre in a damage-control effort to finally put the claims to rest. As part of the deal, each party would pay their own legal fees,
While the exact details of the settlement have not been made public, The Daily Telegraph reported last month that Andrew would pay his victim around £12 million ($16.3 million). The publication also revealed that the funds were coming directly from his mother, the private estate of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. As a result, the Queen took away some of Andrew’s military and patronage titles, forcing him to defend himself as a private citizen in the case.
Following the official conclusion of the lawsuit, Giuffre’s attorney David Boies confirmed to CNN that that payment had been received.
