Virginia Roberts told a fellow Jeffrey Epstein ‘sex slave’ that she slept with Prince Andrew in London, it was claimed last night.
The then 17-year-old is also said to have shown the infamous picture of her posing at Ghislaine Maxwell’s home with the Queen’s second son.
In a world exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, Carolyn Andriano says Miss Roberts texted her from London in March 2001 to say she was going for dinner with Andrew, Maxwell and Epstein.
Miss Roberts is alleged to have shown the picture to Mrs Andriano back in Florida, saying of the prince: ‘I got to sleep with him.’
Mrs Andriano, 35, gave harrowing testimony against Maxwell at her trial last month. Four of the five guilty verdicts against her were underpinned by the evidence of the married mother of five, including the most serious charge of sex trafficking a minor which carries a maximum 40-year jail term.
Today Mrs Andriano bravely waives her legal right to anonymity to tell the full story about her horrific ordeal in Epstein’s ‘House of Sin’ in Palm Beach, Florida – when she was aged 14 to 17 – and her then friendship with Miss Roberts, who she says, recruited her into Epstein and 60-year-old Maxwell’s sexual abuse ‘pyramid scheme’.
Virginia Roberts is said to have shown the infamous picture of her posing at Ghislaine Maxwell’s home with the Queen’s second son, Carolyn Andriano claims
Her account of her conversations with Miss Roberts is the first time there has been any contemporaneous and independent report of the purported meeting with the Duke of York.
Mrs Andriano’s astonishing interview with the Daily Mail – for which she is not being paid – comes in the week that Andrew’s lawyers made a desperate courtroom bid to get Miss Roberts’ rape lawsuit against him in the US thrown out.
His legal bid is said to be hanging by a thread, with a judge expected to rule shortly. The duke strenuously denies any wrongdoing, and says he cannot remember meeting his accuser. Sources close to him have suggested that the picture of him with Miss Roberts may be fake.
Andrew’s lawyers are seeking to persuade the court that the 38-year-old – now based in Australia and known by her married name Giuffre – had waived her right to sue him when she signed an earlier £370,000 legal settlement with US financier Epstein, who killed himself on remand in prison.
In her interview with the Mail, Mrs Andriona says she believes what Miss Roberts told her in 2001 – ten years before the teen sex accuser first told her story in a Sunday newspaper.
Mrs Andriona said: ‘I asked her if she’d been to the palace. And she said “I got to sleep with him”. I said “What? You’re f****** with me” and she said “no, I got to sleep with him”. She didn’t seem upset about it. She thought it was pretty cool.’
Mrs Andriano, 35, (pictured) gave harrowing testimony against Maxwell at her trial last month
Mrs Andriona, who has been widely praised for her courageous testimony at Maxwell’s trial, added: ‘I waive my right to anonymity. I am doing this because I want all young women to know what happened to me when I was a teenager and how it has affected my life.
‘I want to be a voice for all survivors of sexual abuse so that they are not afraid to come forward, even if it is years after the event, and say what happened to them. This is my story and I want to tell it.’
Earlier this week Maxwell’s lawyers demanded a retrial after one of the jurors who convicted her of trafficking confessed to being a sex abuse victim.
Prosecutors who put Maxwell behind bars asked the trial judge for an investigation into the admission by Scotty David during media interviews. But the British socialite’s lawyers went further, saying it was ‘incontrovertible grounds for a new trial’.
Mr David is now likely to be summoned back to the New York courtroom.
Prince Andrew declined to comment.
Virginia Giuffre told me she'd slept with Prince Andrew just days after that trip to London with Jeffrey Epstein: Key witness at Ghislaine Maxwell's trial bravely waives her anonymity and makes a sensational new claim
By Stephen Wright and Barbara McMahon for the Daily Mail
Carolyn Andriano was resentfully cleaning her bedroom, listening to music and squabbling with her mother – being a typical 14-year-old, in fact – when the text came through. It was from her friend Virginia, thousands of miles away in London.
‘You’ll never guess who I’m with…’ it read. Carolyn knew this was going to be a juicy bit of gossip and was quick to respond. ‘Who?’ she replied eagerly.
A text pinged back immediately.
‘She said, “I’m in London with Jeffrey and Maxwell and Prince Andrew”,’ Carolyn recalls. ‘She said they were going to have dinner. I kind of didn’t believe her, but I had no reason not to. I thought it was far-fetched but, then again, she knew wealthy people and had been to fancy parties and stuff like that.
‘I said, “bulls**t”. I was calling her out on it, but she swore [it was true]. She said she was going to see if she could get a picture.’
Of course, the ‘Jeffrey and Maxwell’ the text referred to were disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself in prison in 2019, and his then girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of child trafficking and sex abuse charges in New York last month.
Carolyn and Virginia – then Roberts, now Giuffre – were members of the depraved couple’s harem of vulnerable teens and young women, recruited by Maxwell to provide sexual favours for Epstein. Carolyn was a key prosecution witness at Maxwell’s trial.
Pictured: Carolyn aged 8
Then, she gave evidence only as Carolyn. But she has now bravely waived her legal right to anonymity to speak exclusively to the Mail.
Carolyn has received no fee for this article, saying: ‘I am doing this because I want all young women to know what happened to me when I was a teenager and how it has affected my life. This is my story and I want to tell it.’
Back in 2001, for the two young girls, it all felt like a dangerous – and lucrative – game. A week after the text exchange, true to her word, 17-year-old Virginia came back from the UK and picked up Carolyn from school, keen to tell all. ‘I said, “so where’s your picture, Miss Princess?” ’ Carolyn said. A photograph was duly produced.
The image – Carolyn feels like it was on a mobile phone, although camera phones weren’t universally available in 2001 and memories fade, so it might have been a digital or disposable snap – is one most people will be familiar with.
It shows Virginia grinning, with Prince Andrew at her side, his hand around her waist, and Ghislaine looking on proudly in the background.
Carolyn was duly impressed. But there was more. Much more.
Carolyn was full of questions: ‘I asked her if she’d been to the Palace. And she said, “I got to sleep with him”. I said, “What? You’re f****** with me”, and she said “no, I got to sleep with him”. She didn’t seem upset about it. She thought it was pretty cool.’
This is the first time there has been a contemporaneous and independent account of Virginia’s purported recollection of her meeting with the Duke of York that night in March 2001, which he strenuously denies ever happened. Andrew is currently waiting to hear whether a US judge will throw out Mrs Giuffre’s civil sex assault against him.
‘Virginia just couldn’t believe it. Maxwell had told her she had a surprise for her and I guess the surprise was Prince Andrew. She was excited. I guess when you’re meeting somebody that famous, I would have been excited too.
‘She said they had dinner and they had sex. She didn’t say anything about what they ate or where they were – that’s not what we were talking about. It was just that she couldn’t believe she got to sleep with Prince Andrew.
‘I kept saying, “are you serious?” And she said “yeah”. I asked if she got paid to do it and she never gave me an answer.’
Today Carolyn is a life-worn, 35-year-old married mother of five children aged between five and 17, still living near Palm Beach, where Epstein had a sprawling, £13 million mansion.
She has no issue with Andrew – she’s never met him – nor is she a huge fan of Virginia. She hasn’t seen her former friend in years, and it probably wouldn’t be a joyful reunion if they did meet.
Carolyn holds Virginia responsible for delivering her into Epstein and Maxwell’s clutches in the first place. Giuffre has admitted that she actively recruited young girls for Epstein, something she says she bitterly regrets.
Plus, it should be noted, the jury in New York believed Carolyn’s testimony wholeheartedly. Maxwell was convicted unanimously on five of the six charges against her. Four of the guilty verdicts were underpinned by allegations made by Carolyn. The most serious of them, of child sex trafficking a minor, applied to Carolyn alone, and
