Convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell claims Prince Andrew and Virginia Roberts Guiffre never met – and the infamous photo of them together was fake.
In her first aired interview since being sentenced to 20 years in a Florida prison for trafficking young girls who were molested by financier Jeffrey Epstein, Maxwell said she had no recollection of the couple ever meeting.
Although Maxwell herself was in the photo, she insisted it had been manipulated.
Guiffre has claimed Andrew sexually abused her three times as a teenager in London, New York and on Jeffrey Epstein’s private Caribbean island.
In the interview that aired Monday night, Maxwell said: “I don’t remember meeting them. And I don’t think this picture is real,” she said of the photo, which shows Prince Andrew with an arm around Guiffre and Maxwell, who are grinning in the background.
“It is a fake. I don’t believe for a second it’s real, in fact I’m sure it’s not.”
“I don’t remember her in my house,” Ghislaine Maxwell said of Virginia Guiffre.AP
Ghislaine Maxwell claims this photo was manipulated. AFP/US District Court – Southern District of New York
Maxwell added: “There is no original of this photo, [just] Copies of copies and portions of it, according to some experts, look as if it has been Photoshopped. I don’t remember her in my house,” reported The Sun.
Prince Andrew has long been linked to Maxwell and Epstein, who committed suicide in his Manhattan jail cell in 2019.
Guiffre and Andrew reached an agreement in February last year, but the terms were not disclosed.
Virginia Guiffre and Prince Andrew reached an agreement in February last year, per AP
The much-anticipated interview, titled “Ghislaine Behind Bars,” is scheduled to air on Jeremy Kyle’s TalkTV show Monday night at 7 p.m. Kyle told viewers: “Maxwell is lifting the lid on Epstein, Prince Andrew and even our late Queen. This is Ghislaine Maxwell behind bars in her own words.”
Maxwell recently opened up about her admiration for the Queen.
“I thought the Queen was one of the most extraordinary women I’ve ever had the privilege of meeting,” Maxwell, 61, told the Chron on Sunday behind bars.
Ghislaine Maxwell interviewed from prison.Talk TV
She noted that she is “deeply sorry” after receiving news of her death in September 2022 at the age of 96.
Maxwell was a guest of the Queen’s son Prince Andrew for decades and was notably pictured with Epstein at Balmoral Castle in 1999.
The interview comes as Prince Andrew is reportedly seeking to end the multi-million dollar deal he and Guiffre agreed last year in hopes she will drop her sexual assault allegations, according to The Sun.