Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Prince Andrew Forks Over 16 Million in Sex Attack Suit
Episode Date: February 16, 2022A settlement has been reached between Prince Andrew and Virginia Giuffre. Giuffre has long accused the prince of sexually abusing her multiple times when she was 17. The terms of the settlement have n...ot been released to the public, however, reports say the terms pay out $16 Million U.S. dollars, with $2 million of that designated for a charity of Giuffre's choice. Last month, the terms of a 2009 settlement between Giuffre and Epstein were released to the public as part of Giuffre’s lawsuit against Prince Andrew. The document revealed that Giuffre was paid $500,000 in the settlement. Prince Andrew’s legal team has argued that the 2009 settlement legally shielded him from civil lawsuits like the one Giuffre had filed against him. He had also tried to stop the stipulations of Giuffre’s 2009 settlement from being released to the public. As part of the 2009 settlement, Giuffre agreed to “release, acquit, satisfy, and forever discharge” Epstein and “any other person or entity who could have been included as a potential defendant.” Prince Andrew contended that the decade-old settlement legally shielded him from civil lawsuits like the one Giuffre has filed against him.Joining Nancy Grace Today: Jessica Pride - Sexual Assault Attorney, The Pride Law Firm, victimlawyer.com, Instagram: @thepridelawfirm, Twitter: @pridelawyer Dr. Bethany Marshall - Psychoanalyst, www.drbethanymarshall.com, New Netflix show: 'Bling Empire' (Beverly Hills) Greg Scheffer - Former Phoenix Police Department Detective, 22 Years Specializing in Child Sexual Exploitation, Crimes Against Children, Domestic Violence and Adult Sex Crimes. Charlie Lankston - FeMail Editor, DailyMail.com, Twitter/Instagram:@charlielanks Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
You're listening to an iHeart podcast.
Bombshell in the case against Prince Andrew, the prince to the throne of England.
Amazing.
Take a listen right now to our friends at CBS.
Well, Prince Andrew has reached a settlement with a woman who accused him of sexually abusing her when she was a teenager.
Virginia Giuffre brought the civil suit against the Duke of York.
She says Jeffrey Epstein trafficked her in the early 2000s and Prince Andrew raped her several times as a minor.
In a new statement, the Duke of York says he regrets his association with Epstein
and commends the bravery of Miss. Dufresne and other
survivors. More on this, let's bring in Jessica Levinson. She's a CBS News legal contributor.
Explain the significance of reaching a settlement in this lawsuit. Does this mean that Prince Andrew
does not have to claim guilt or innocence in this case. He's sort of off the hook publicly, as it were.
Well, I think publicly he's very much on the hook because he's this has already caused some great damage to his reputation.
But damage to his reputation.
Is that all they can think about? Damage to the prince's reputation. When according to this young girl, and millions of dollars to back it up,
she was, under the law, raped by Prince Andrew.
A child at that age cannot give consent.
Take a listen to our cut, A7.
A7 from Netflix, Filthy Rich. I first met Prince Andrew March 10th, 2001 in London at Ghislaine's townhouse.
He knocked on the door.
He came inside Ghislaine's townhouse and we're sitting there having tea.
Ghislaine has this favorite guessing game that she does.
She goes to Prince Andrew, how old do you think Virginia is?
And he said 17.
And she's like, oh, you're right.
And, you know, they like made a little joke about it.
He's like, oh, my daughters aren't far from your age.
You know, my daughter's a little bit younger than you.
We went out for the night, club tramp in London.
And he dances and he's profusely sweating over me and it was disgusting.
Well, it didn't end there, according to her.
And again, with millions of dollars forked over in the last 24 hours by Prince Andrew to his young accuser.
Take a listen to our cut A8. Virginia Roberts, listen.
It ended with sexual abuse and intercourse and then a pat on the back. You've done a really good job. Like, you know, thank you very much. And here's $200. You know, before you know it,
I'm being lent out to politicians and to academics and to
people that you, royalty and people that you just, you would never think, like, how did you get into
that position of power in the first place if you're this disgusting, evil, decrepit person on the inside?
When you hear her talking and you combine it with a multi-million dollar payout, what was it, 10, 16 million?
I'm not sure, but I know who does know. Charlie Langston, female editor at DailyMail.com.
Charlie, how much is the settlement? 12 million pounds, we believe, which is around 16 million
dollars, I think. Now, a portion of that will go to Virginia Jafray's charity,
but the bulk of it will go to her. With me, an all-star panel. First of all,
I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and
Sirius XM 111. Is this the end of the story? I'd like to say yes, but probably not. You think this is the first time Prince Andrew has had sex with a young girl?
Do you?
I'm not so sure about that.
Will others now come out of the woodwork?
Also with us, Jessica Pride, sex assault attorney with the Pride Law Firm.
You can find her at victimlawyer.com. Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst to the stars,
joining us out of Beverly Hills at drbethanymarshall.com. She's a star of a new Netflix
hit, Bling Empire. Greg Sheffer, former Phoenix Police Department detective, 22 years specializing
in sex exploitation of children.
Charlie Langston, I didn't think it would end this quickly, especially when Prince Andrew's
legal team came out guns blazing, claiming that the victim in this case was, what did
he say?
A money grabbing sex kitten.
Who says sex kitten?
I haven't heard that since maybe Austin Powers
or the Avengers.
Remember that?
Oh yeah, one of them was a Brit too,
if not all of them.
So a sex kitten, a money grabbing sex kitten.
Was that what he said?
It was.
And to be completely honest,
I was surprised to see how quickly this case came to an end
because I really did think that Virginia was going to fight for her day in court.
However, I think that it's come to an end this quickly for a number of reasons.
First and foremost, Andrew was under enormous pressure from the palace
to bring this to a close before the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.
At the rate that it was going, this was going to drag
out as a dark cloud over all of those celebrations this spring. Additionally, I think it was very
clear that if Andrew was going to testify in front of a jury, it was not going to be a good thing for
him. We all saw what happened when he did that 2019 interview where he denied that he was able to sweat,
where he was talking about travel clothes. And I think had he got up in front of a jury,
it could have potentially been even more embarrassing for him and brought even more
scandal on the royal family, which is not something that they need right now.
Yes, he is terrible on camera. Terrible would be terrible under oath, not likable in the least,
not likable at all. People like Prince William. People liked Diana. People like Eugenie and
Beatrice, or at least I think they do. There's something about Andrew and Charles is just reptilian. There's
just something about them. I wouldn't be surprised at all if they unzipped their face and there was
a big lizard under there. Not surprised at all. Now, hey, Jackie, while I play cut one from Jackie
Long Channel 4 News, I want you to dig up Andrew and that horrible, they call it a train wreck interview.
Who told him to do that? It was such a bad idea. I can tell you this is why he settled, because he's
terrible under pressure. But first of all, take a listen to our cut one, Jackie Long.
I have no recollection of ever meeting this lady.
Virginia Giuffre, as a woman, Andrew, has always insisted he did not know.
I can absolutely categorically tell you it never happened.
He has consistently denied sexually abusing her when she was under 18.
Today, in a document submitted to an American court,
it was revealed the Duke of York has reached
an out-of-court settlement with Miss Geoffreyne just weeks before he was due to answer questions under oath in her civil case against
him. She had always claimed she was forced to have sex with the Duke by the billionaire Jeffrey
Epstein and his girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. The sum of money involved in the settlement was not
disclosed and there was no admission of any wrongdoing.
Right. Did he have to admit he did it? He paid $16 million. I can guarantee you,
mommy is footing that bill. I'm talking about the Queen of England, who I love, love her.
The fury at Andrew right now for forcing the Queen, age 95, to bail him out yet again.
With me, an all-star panelist I mentioned before, Jessica Pride, sex assault lawyer at the Pride firm.
You know, Jessica, you've tried plenty of cases, as have I.
And the long story short is it always comes down to the wire. When the defendant sees the jurors filing into the
courtroom, 60 to 100 of them, and you're about to strike that jury, suddenly they start sweating,
they have to go to the bathroom, and they enter a plea. That's what happens. And here it is just
a few days before Andrew has to sit down under oath and answer questions, you got a
settlement. Why is it always that way? Are they trying to play a game of chicken with each other?
Who's going to blink first? I think they thought maybe that the New York court wasn't going to
force, they were going to dismiss the case. And he was hoping he'd get out on a technicality. His lawyers would be able to save him, and they weren't able to.
And because he was forced to actually have to sit for a deposition, you saw in the interview, he's terrible.
I would have loved to have had him across the table asking him questions in a deposition.
Oh, I couldn't wait until his videotape deposition leaked, which, of course, it would.
But what is it?
Why do people wait till the last minute?
Oh, oh, wait a minute.
You said something really interesting.
Nancy, I haven't thought about that.
Jump in.
Well, my husband's a judge, and whenever he tells me he's a civil court judge, oh, I start a trial tomorrow.
I'm always like, no, it's going to settle.
It's going to settle.
It always does.
We talk about it over the dinner table. The reasons are complex, but I love your phrase,
a game of chicken. It's a game of chicken, which side is going to win out, who's going to have the
bigger settlement. And in terms of Prince Andrew, this is a game of chicken played out on an international stage. I mean, you have Virginia Roberts,
Jeffries, who was once a victim, but she is fierce. She is just a force to be reckoned with.
And you have Prince Andrew, who, you know, this is not a clinical term, but he's a buffoon. I hate
to say it. I've been trying to analyze it for the last three hours in preparation for this show. I listened to his interview again, and I'm thinking, what is wrong
with him? If he were in my office and a psychoanalyst, how would I, how would I diagnose
him? I mean, there's, there's a sort of entitlement. How about a spoiled brat born with a silver spoon
in his mouth? Charlie Langston, did you just hear everything Dr. Bethany Marshall said and Jessica Pryde?
Because Jessica said something very interesting.
Not that you aren't interesting too, Bethany, because you always are.
But Charlie, he was surprised a U.S. court didn't throw Virginia's case out, Virginia
Jafray's case.
We don't care if he's the Prince of England. There would be
H-E-double-L to pay if a judge here in the States threw that case out with a U.S. victim. No way was
that going to happen. Uh-uh. There was absolutely no way it was going to happen. And I think when
he made that kind of desperate attempt to have the case thrown out. I don't believe that anyone really expected a judge to go through with it.
But, you know, on the one hand, we do have to appreciate that his legal team was going to do everything that they possibly could
in order to try and prove that Virginia is lying.
Now, I think the timing of this kind of settlement is very interesting.
And I think the reason that it's happened when it has is because the palace, a.k.a. the queen, really put her foot down and said there is absolutely no way that you can take part in this deposition.
We do not know what they are going to ask you.
They have every right to ask you all manner of personal questions about
your sex life, about what your body looks like when you're naked, all of this kind of stuff.
Okay, go stop. Wait a minute. Why did you put that in my head? I've gone through this whole
case without thinking about Prince Andrew naked. And now you just put that in my head.
And I've thought it. I cannot unthink it. It's there forever ingrained in my brain because of you, Charlie Langston.
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
Greg Sheffer, former Phoenix Police Department detective, 22 years specializing in exactly this kind of case.
Greg, the thing is, when a person is charged with a crime, they can take the Fifth Amendment.
They don't have to testify or even give any statement at all that could hurt themselves.
But this was a civil case and there
is not going to be a criminal case because the statute of limitations has passed. So he cannot
possibly take the fifth amendment. They could ask Prince Andrew everything from does he wear a g
string to boxers. They could ask him, is he into nipple clips or girls dressing up
like school girls they could ask him anything and he would sit there on the hot seat wondering
what do they know what do they know who else was there during those parties and events. And if he lied on any of these questions, it would be perjury because he'd be under oath.
Think about it, Greg Sheffer.
Yeah, well, I think that's probably why the queen put the pressure on him.
Once they realized the case was going to go forward, they're like, this has to stop.
Man, you're not kidding.
They would get into his history and they could get in, you know, when they're up in that
upper echelon, royalty and billionaires, you know, they get whatever they want. They're in a position
to they have all their wants are met. And so he's been living this lifestyle for decades. And so
they didn't want that all to come out in a deposition, which it would have. And he's a train wreck.
That deposition would have been a lawyer's dream. Oh, a field day. A field day. Oh,
how I would love to question him. I can see myself running up and down a football field with stacks of questions in my hands. Oh, just, I would be thrilled to cross him. And the other
thing, Charlie Langston, did you hear what Greg Sheffer just said?
As royalty, all of his needs were met.
All of his wants were met, is what Sheffer said.
In the past few weeks, more and more about Andrew has been coming out, including how
he berated at least one maid, someone on the domestic staff at the palace because she misplaced a pyramid
of little stuffed toys that sit on his bed.
Stuffies.
I don't mean she lost him.
She put one up there out of order.
They have to sit in a certain way.
And they even had like a little diagram for the maid as to where to put the teddy and where to put the giraffe.
Seriously.
Yeah.
This is a grown man.
And I think the thing is, is that, you know, the way that the royal family works is you always have the oldest child of a generation who is going to sit on the throne.
You've got the heir and the spare.
Exactly.
And the thing is, is that the spare is always kind of treated with kid gloves
because there is always this resentment that builds up between the heir and the spare.
We've also seen it with Prince Harry.
Now, Prince Harry has obviously behaved right.
Harry has behaved in a very different way. But Harry really has thrown his toys out of the pram.
Every time I see Harry giving a statement, I put him on mute because it's going to be more poor, poor, pitiful me and my 16 million dollar Montecito mansion.
I have it so bad. Seriously, shut up. Go get a job. Stop. It's exactly the same. It's exactly the
same with Prince Andrew. You know, what we've seen is that he has been treated so delicately
because, you know, Lord forbid that they do anything to cause him any more damage than being
the spare air might already have done. And this has basically created a scenario where Andrew felt as though he did not have to.
Wait a minute, Charlie Langston, calling pot, calling the kettle black.
Wait a minute.
The other one is Edward, correct?
Edward?
Yes.
Yes.
He and his wife, Sophie, they actually have jobs, do they not?
They're normal.
And you never hear them whining and carrying on.
And apparently Sophie has been a huge comfort to the queen in her later years.
You never hear scandal running around.
Nothing like that.
But I do also think that.
Nancy, can I make a comment about this?
Oh, sorry.
Bethany, could we stop you?
Can we stop her?
No way.
Go ahead.
And then there's the daughter.
Is it Mark?
Anne.
Anne.
Anne.
You never hear anything bad about her.
She's just, you know, they go to work.
They work like 300 plus engagements a year, if not more.
That's working every day.
Nose to the grindstone.
Their reputation, pristine. So those two royals
have turned out beautifully and I'm sure are a big inspiration to the British people. Okay,
Dr. Bethany Marshall, jump in. I can't wait to hear this. Okay. Well, just from a family
psychology perspective, in most families, and research supports this, there is at least one
bad egg, one person who's pathological. And usually what happens is that they're under
employed, they're entitled, and they almost always get the elderly parents to support their life.
So whether it's in a royal setting or, you know, in Atlanta, Georgia or some small town in the Midwest.
You know, think about all the families you know.
There's always a bad egg and there's always someone sopping off the parent.
You know, I've got two people in the studio right now and they're both shaking their heads yes.
You're hooked up.
You can hear what we're saying.
Yeah, everybody's shaking their heads yes.
There's always one rotten apple.
And all the stuffies.
I want to talk about that.
All the stuffed animals on his bed.
When you look for your listeners, when they have sort of a crazy person, an entitled person,
someone who's a buffoon or sort of a Prince Andrew in their life, you know, you think
about what a four, five or six year old is like, and you superimpose that into the adult
brain.
And that is the basis of psychopathology,
character pathology. So adults who are sort of narcissistic, borderline, have personality
disorders, they are always sort of colored with the traits of infancy and childhood. So I'm not
surprised that he's entitled, five-year-olds are, or that he has stuffies on his bed. Six-year-olds
want that. Or that he thought that
the world was his candy store and he could just have sex with Virginia as many times as he wanted
because he's an entitled little five-year-old. Not to let him off the hook as an adult,
but impulsivity, wanting gratification, all these character traits are at the core of adults who are
pathological. I think I heard Greg Sheffer jumping in. Go ahead. Well, to kind of piggyback on that, when I was dealing with investigations,
you would see the bad apple in every family. And it always seems like the parent,
that was, I'm not going to say favorite, but they would cater to that bad apple.
You know, that bad apple could do no wrong or they'd protect that child more than the other
children. And I don't know if it's because they knew that that person couldn't survive on their
own and they needed to help and the other kids were going to be or were stronger or better. But
you always seem like the parents were enabling or supporting that bad apple.
I think in the parents' mind, Greg, I believe they think that they're helping the bad apple.
They're helping them avoid drama or conflict in their lives because they innately know that the bad apple can't handle it and will fail or end up in juvie jail at the worst.
Guys, we heard earlier, and I believe it was Jessica Prye talking about how much she would love to have Prince Andrew on cross-examination under oath.
And this is one of the reasons why.
Now, take a listen to this BBC interview by Emily Maitlis with Prince Andrew.
It's our cut A10.
How did you first become friends?
How did you meet? Well, I met through his girlfriend back in 1999,
and I'd known her since she was at university in the UK. And it would be, to some extent,
a stretch to say that, as it were, we were close friends. We were friends because of other people. And I had a lot of opportunity to go to the United States, but I didn't have much time with him.
I suppose I saw him once or twice a year, perhaps maybe maximum of three times a year.
And this is after Epstein is charged with prostitution and abusing minors in Florida. He continues his relationship with him.
Andrew does. And when he's saying he met Epstein through a friend, he's talking about Ghislaine
Maxwell. I don't think I'd be bragging about that either. But wait a minute, wait a minute.
Take a listen to our cut A14. Because during that time, those few days, witnesses say they saw many young girls coming and going at the time.
There is video footage of Epstein accompanied by young girls.
And you were there, staying in his house, catching up with friends.
I never... I mean, if they were, then I wasn't a party to any of that.
I never saw them i mean you have to you have to understand that that that his house i i described it more as a as a as a almost as a railway station
if you know what i mean in the sense that there were people coming in and out of that house
all the time um what they were doing and why they were there, I had nothing to do with. So I'm
afraid I can't make any comment on that because I really don't know.
Okay, right there, Jessica Pride. Who would not be suspicious and concerned with so much to lose
your royalty for Pete's sake.
You are an heir to the British throne.
And you're in a guy's home and you see little girls going in and out and in and out, as he said, like a railway station.
And you never wonder why. Yeah, I call bullshit.
That's what is beautiful about the civil process is there's so much more leeway than in a criminal case
to do discovery and look for evidence, finding out the names of every person that was in the
house when he was there, getting receipts for, you know, any of his travel expenses,
trying to really pin down getting his calendar. We would be able to subpoena all of those things,
ask him all of those things in deposition, ask him about every person he saw at a party.
And so the exposure and the risk of exposure, not only to him, to the royal family, but to other men in power that we know were associates of Jeffrey Epstein, it was too great.
And that's why he had to settle.
People don't realize that 99% of civil cases settle and actually don't go to trial.
Everybody talks about, oh, we wanted to see him in court.
But the odds of it actually going to a jury were really low.
And, you know, it's helpful not only for the plaintiff, but also for the defendant, because you're weighing both risks.
When she gives it over to a jury, she would be hoping that 12 jurors got it right.
This place, she got to have the power and she got to make a decision and choose to settle this case.
And I don't know any innocent party who's ever paid $16 million.
$16 million.
Well, again, I think I know why. Take a listen to our
cut. A16, the BBC. I have no recollection of ever meeting her. I'm almost in fact, I'm convinced
that I was never in tramps with her. There are a number of things that are wrong with that story. One of which is that I don't know where the bar is in Tramps.
I don't drink.
I don't think I've ever bought a drink in Tramps whenever I was there.
Do you remember dancing at Tramp?
No.
That couldn't have happened because the date that there's being
suggested i was at home with the children okay if you will recall charlie langston from dailymail.com
neither of his children supported that claim no and you know i think there were so many issues with that interview that he did with the excuses that he made.
And I think, you know, the statement that he issued when they were kind of revealing that they had decided to settle out of court.
The one good thing about that statement is that it was the first time that he has ever really acknowledged that his relationship with Epstein was unacceptable.
And it's also the first time that he's ever acknowledged that Epstein sex trafficked and
abused women. It's the first time that he's ever shown any sympathy whatsoever towards Virginia
and towards all of Epstein's other victims. And I think that that is a very interesting kind of switch for Andrew,
because for so long, he denied that he knew about any wrongdoing. He denied that he had any
knowledge that Epstein was bringing women into his apartment, into his home. And this statement,
although it was not a confession of guilt, it was about as close as we have ever come to Andrew admitting that he
knew that Epstein was doing terrible things and that Epstein was victimizing these women,
these young girls, during the time that Andrew was friends with him.
I fully believe the theory that the reason Andrew hung out with Epstein is for money,
that Epstein bailed him out when Andrew was in need of money
and that he would keep going back to the trough, so to speak. I think this is one of my favorite
portions of sound, one of my favorite statements Andrew said. Take a listen to our cut 17,
the BBC. She was very specific about that night. She described dancing with you and you profusely sweating
and that she went on to have baths, possibly...
There's a slight problem with the sweating
because I have a peculiar medical condition,
which is that I don't sweat, or I didn't sweat at the time, and that was... Oh, was she? sweat or I didn't sweat at the time and that was
oh actually yes 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 and I simply it was it was it
was almost impossible for me to to sweat and it's only because I have done a number of
things in the recent past that I'm starting to be able to do that again. So I'm afraid to say that
there's a medical condition that says that I didn't do it. So therefore.
I mean, Nancy, can I jump in about that one?
Talk about a load of crap. I mean, stinking, stinging crap. It's painful. Go ahead. Go ahead. Well,
well, he actually, you know, he cites being in the Falcons war. So he kind of working in his war
as a hero who cannot sweat. It was a great deflection. It was a great deflection. But
here's my second favorite cut. 21, please, A21.
So why would somebody have put in another hand?
You think it is you next to her in the photo.
Oh, it's definitely me.
I mean, that's a picture of me.
It's not a picture of, I don't believe it's a picture of me in London,
because when I go out in London, I wear a suit and a tie.
That's what I would describe as those are my traveling clothes if I'm going overseas. I've got plenty of photographs of you have a different set of clothes just to travel in.
How off-putting is that to people that are living month to month?
I know it's so tone deaf.
I mean, he's really is in his own world, really walled off in his own castle.
But it shows a profound lack of empathy.
And don't you think that would go
hand in hand with being a sex predator? I mean, it shouldn't surprise us at all. You know, Nancy,
when little kids lie, you know how they lie in really obvious ways, you know, oh, mom, I didn't
eat that cookie. But the cookie is, you know, that the chocolate is dripping off the corner of their
mouths. You know, Andrew kind of lies in that way, which goes back to my original theory
that he's really kind of childlike in his personality disorder. He doesn't see in us
what we see in him, which is what we see in disturbed adults. They do not know how they
come across to the people around them. They are tone deaf, to use your word.
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
Charlie Langston joining us from Daily Mail. Charlie, how critical was a single photo in the process that ends in a $16 million settlement paid by Prince Andrew and that she had been with Prince Andrew in Ghislaine Maxwell's house. This was the only photograph that we've ever seen
of the two of them together. And that's why so much attention was paid, you know, in any normal
kind of court case, I think, to kind of spend years of time going over and over whether a photograph is legitimate, whether it's been edited, that's not something that you would really see happen.
But this photograph was really the only thing that Virginia had that was physical proof that she had been with Prince Andrew in Ghislaine Maxwell's house.
Now, all of this talk about traveling clothes and so on and
so forth, I just think it's totally ludicrous. And the way that I kind of interpreted that as a
member of the public is here is someone desperately trying to remove this photo from being such a big
piece of key interest because he knew that if this photo was ever proven to be legitimate
or if this photo was ever kind of proven to be falsely edited, that would sway the case one way
or another. Now, Daily Mail actually got an exclusive email exchange between Ghislaine Maxwell
and her lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, in which he asked her, does this photo seem real to you?
You are in the background.
And she replied and said, it appears real to me.
I think it is.
And, you know, obviously this email exchange has only come to light
since we've heard that the court case will be settled.
But I think that would have been a huge bombshell for Prince Andrew's case. I think that
could have really threatened to destroy any hope he had of proving that this photo was not legitimate.
And the only way that could have been brought into evidence at trial is to have Ghislaine Maxwell
take the stand, which could be done under the law. And if she refused to testify or lied about it,
what she said in the email to Dershowitz would have been brought in as a, quote,
inconsistent statement.
So that would have come into evidence because she is a principal.
She is in the picture.
Take a listen to what Andrew says about the photo in our cut 819 BBC.
Do you recognize yourself in the photo?
Yeah, it's pretty difficult not to recognize yourself.
Your friend suggested that the photo is fake.
I think it's from the investigations that we've done,
you can't prove whether or not that photograph is faked or not
because it is a photograph of a photograph of a photograph so it's very
difficult to be able to to prove it but I don't remember that photograph ever
being taken but it's possible that it was you with your arm around Thomas. That's me but
but whether that's my hand or whether that's the position,
but I have simply no recollection of a photograph ever being taken.
So Greg Sheffer, he says, it's me, but I'm not convinced it's my hand.
It's not a hard question.
If that's not you in that photograph and it didn't happen,
you just know that photograph never happened.
I wasn't there with her.
But obviously he danced around it because, you know, he's stalling for time to come up with a good response to that question.
And then, you know, his semi-denial of a photograph of a photograph.
It's all how those type of predators dance around questions and try to rationalize things and distract from the truth.
And I just think that he's lived in a world of entitlement, and so he's not used to being called out on the carpet.
That's why when he lies, you can prove to lie right away, because I think his entire life he's been able to get away with it.
No one's ever called him on it. And this finally the queen dropped the hammer on him and took away,
basically took away his life. And that's when he's finally come to terms with everything.
And that's why the settlement happened. Charlie Langston, joining us from Daily Mail,
he's been on the story from the very, very beginning, just before the settlement is announced. There was a flurry of news regarding the photo that the original was, quote, lost, that Virginia Jeffrey couldn't find the original.
What's the truth? Did the photo exist in its original state or not?
I mean, I think the photo absolutely existed in its original state at some point.
And if Ghislaine Maxwell herself was saying, oh, yes, this looks real, you know, she might not remember the photo being taken specifically.
I don't think I can remember photos of myself that were taken 10 plus years ago. of email suggests is that she might not remember the photo being taken specifically, but that means that she likely remembers a time when she was in her home in London with Andrew and with Virginia.
And therefore, this kind of scenario that we see in the photo likely happened possibly on more than
one occasion. So I do believe that the photo exists in its original form somewhere. But once
again, I, you know, if someone said to me, could you dig up this old photo that was taken of you
as a baby? I don't think I would be able to find it. You know, photos, unfortunately, back in those
days before there were digital copies of them, they do get lost and they go missing and they get,
you know, thrown away. There's any number of reasons.
But would you throw away a picture of you with a prince?
Well, you know, I think, you know, I can't speak to Virginia's state of mind.
I mean, I'm not convinced it was lost.
I think that may have been a claim.
Another question I have is how is he who had to sell his Verbier Chalet for 18 million pounds?
How is he footing the bill for this? Because he still owed a lot of money on that chalet. Well, I personally think there's no question that the
queen is helping out. Now, when Prince Andrew lost all of his royal titles, when he lost all
of his military titles, the palace said Prince Andrew will need to fight this case as a private citizen.
But what we need to remember is that him being a private citizen is still being the son of the queen, who is a very wealthy lady.
And I think that the queen would have done and paid anything to make this case go away before it reached the stage where he was having to sit down for a deposition and before
it reached the stage where he was possibly going to have to testify in front of a court of law.
Those things would have been so embarrassing and shameful and scandalous for the royal family
that any cost at that point to the queen is worthwhile in order to prevent those from
happening. Was he married to Fergie at the time of this
allegation? He, I, you know, I actually don't know that off the top of my head, but I do believe that
he, you know, they were planning on calling Fergie as a witness. And, you know, there was also the
possibility that they were going to call Eugenie and Beatrice as witnesses. And Virginia Giuffre's lawyer also at
one point said that he may well call Meghan Markle as a witness. And I think that these things may
well have been said in order to scare Andrew into a settlement. But can you imagine the embarrassment
that would have happened if Meghan Markle had been called as a witness
and had been asked to talk about all of the awful things that she may have witnessed during her time as a royal.
Similarly, if Sarah Ferguson had been called as a witness,
she's always been one of the most scandalous members of the royal family.
And that could have brought such enormous embarrassment on the monarchy.
And, you know, I really do think even beyond Prince Andrew's testimony, there was so much potential for more controversy and more scandal to come out that the royal family just couldn't afford to have that happen. Hills, the fact that in many minds, this is an admission of guilt on the behalf of Prince
Andrew to underage sex, which is rape, statutory rape in many jurisdictions.
The effect of dragging this out for so long, what effect does that have on rape victims? Nobody is outright saying the word
rape, but when you have sex with a minor who under the law cannot consent, that's why my children who
are 14 can't go buy a car. They can't buy liquor or cigarettes. They can't enter a contract to buy
a house or work a full date because they are children under the law.
What effect does dragging this out all of this time have on her, Virginia Robertson-Giffray?
Well, I think that it could actually be helpful, believe it or not, to not only her but other victims because think about it victims of rape and sexual abuse
experience a huge power differential between them and the perpetrator but now Virginia Giuffre
has her own attorney she has her own team she has public support behind her you know there's a new
sheriff in town who has power now the. The power dynamic has been reversed.
And the power dynamic that has been reversed is with one of the most powerful men on the face of the planet, a member of the royal party. So think about the impact on the public. Imagine you are
working in a grocery store as a checker, you're underage, and your manager or the store owner
comes and rapes you. But you don't report it because you're afraid of losing your job.
And the power differential haunts you for the rest of your life.
But you read about this case, and you learn that one little girl has toppled a prince.
And you think, aha, maybe I could do it too.
Maybe I could have power in this life.
And it kind of galvanizes you to begin to take
action on your own behalf. One other point, Nancy, the $16 million, I think it's $12 million,
16 million pounds. For those who think that this is a lot of money, not only to put it in context
of the enormous wealth of the royal family, but there is a reverberating negative effect of sexual abuse.
When a woman is raped, it will affect her children.
It will affect her children's children.
It will affect her cousins, her aunts, her uncles, her marriage.
So the reimbursement is not only to her.
It's towards those for whom there's a negative cascading set of effects.
So you multiplied out or divided out over all the people who have been affected by this.
It's not so big a settlement, Nancy. Dr. Bethany, I agree and disagree. A victim of violent crime, almost universally, would tell you no amount of money can make up for what has happened to them.
And if they could swap out, they would give anything not to have been a victim of violent crime.
There are three women in the studio here right now with me.
One in four women have been the victim
of a sex assault of some nature.
What would this woman's life have been like
had she not been sex molested?
Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off.
Goodbye, friend.
You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.