Virginia Giuffre did not sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) as part of her settlement with Prince Andrew, paving the way for her to speak out about the alleged sexual abuse and bring more shame on the British royal family.
The Queen’s disgraced son reached a multimillion-pound settlement with his accuser on Tuesday in order to stop the civil case going to trial.
The settlement – which reports have estimated is in the region of £12m and the Queen is believed to be helping pay for – came just weeks before Prince Andrew was to be interviewed under oath for a deposition by Ms Giuffre’s high-powered attorneys.
The Duke of York had reportedly been under intense pressure from the Queen not to let the case proceed to court to save the family from embarrassment, particularly in the year of her platinum jubilee.
However, the embarrassment could be far from over, with Ms Giuffre’s lawyer David Boies confirming that she has not signed an NDA as part of the agreement.
“The settlement amount is confidential, but there’s no NDA,” he told The Sun.
With no NDA, questions are now swirling around as to whether Ms Giuffre will reveal the details that would have emerged in the courtroom in a tell-all book or TV deal.
Sources familiar with the deal told The Times that Ms Giuffre is banned from speaking publicly about her allegations until after the platinum jubilee celebrations in May.
Ms Giuffre has long accused the duke of raping her when she was 17 years old on three separate occasions – once at Maxwell’s London home, once on a visit to Epstein’s private island Little St James, and once at Epstein’s Manhattan mansion.
She claimed that she was trafficked to the prince for sex by his former friends, the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and convicted sex abuser Ghislaine Maxwell.
Ms Giuffre claimed that she was 17 when she had sex with the prince and that he was aware she was underage at the time.
Prince Andrew has vehemently denied the allegations and has not been charged with any crime.
He claimed that he had no recollection of ever meeting Ms Giuffre – despite a now-infamous photo of him with his arm around the teenager’s waist inside Maxwell’s London townhouse, with Maxwell stood in the background.
Ms Giuffre said the photo was taken back in March 2001, after she had been at the Tramp nightclub in central London with Andrew, Maxwell and Epstein before they returned to Maxwell’s home.
It was the first night of three that she claimed she was sexually abused by the prince.
The carefully worded statement confirming the settlement is not an admission of guilt from the duke but he accepted that Ms Giuffre is “an established victim of abuse”.
He also admitted that she had been subjected to “unfair public attacks” and said he “commends the bravery” of her and other survivors – after his legal team tried to discredit her for months.
Prince Andrew also said he regretted his association with Epstein who he acknowledged “trafficked countless young girls over many years”.
He is set to pay damages to Ms Giuffre and a “substantial” donation to a charity “in support of victims’ rights”.
While the financial terms of the settlement remain undisclosed, several reports have put the figure at around £12m including a £2m donation to charity.
Pressure is mounting on Buckingham Palace to reveal who will be funding the settlement, as it is unclear how the duke can afford to pay that amount and the royal family is largely funded by the British taxpayer.
The palace refused to comment on the settlement or on who would fund the payout.
“We have never commented on the funding of the duke’s legal matters and won’t be now,” a palace spokesperson told The Independent on Tuesday.
But The Daily Telegraph said the Queen was set to help her son pay the bill using money from her private Duchy of Lancaster estate, which is worth an estimated £23m.
In January, it emerged that the prince was trying to sell his Verbier ski chalet for a sum in the region of £17m.
That same month, the Queen stripped her son of his military titles and insisted he would be fighting the civil suit as a private citizen.
“If the UK people want to know where the money has come from they could get that from Andrew,” Mr Boies told The Sun.
He said the settlement came after 72 hours of talks between the two parties, adding that his client “was very, very pleased” with the settlement.
