London: Ghislaine Maxwell has claimed she has no memory of the Duke of York and his sex abuse accuser meeting at her home and insisted that a photograph suggesting otherwise must be a fake.
The shamed socialite has given a television interview from a Florida jail, where she is serving 20 years for child sex trafficking after procuring girls for the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Prince Andrew with Virginia Giuffre, then Virginia Roberts, at the London home of Ghislaine Maxwell (right) in 2001.
The 61-year-old questioned the authenticity of the photograph showing Prince Andrew with his arm around the waist of 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre at Maxwell’s London home.
However, she told TalkTV, in an interview to be broadcast on Monday evening in Britain: “I have no memory of them meeting and I don’t think that picture is real.
“There is no original of that photo, (only) copies of it that have been produced, copies of copies. Parts of it, according to some experts, looks like it has been photoshopped.
“I don’t remember her in my home. I know that Virginia travelled with Jeffrey, and so it’s entirely possible. But the photo doesn’t appear to be real, and I don’t recall it being taken.”
Ghislaine Maxwell has given her first interview to TalkTV from inside a Florida jail.Credit:TalkTV
It came amid reports that the Duke plans to make a legal bid to overturn the settlement he struck with Giuffre last February, after she accused him of raping and abusing her three times in 2001, when she was 17.
He is said to have consulted his lawyers after Giuffre dropped her sexual abuse claim against US lawyer Alan Dershowitz, admitting after an eight-year legal battle that she “may have made a mistake” in claiming he had abused her as a teenager.
