Ghislaine Maxwell claims photo of Prince Andrew with abuse accuser is 'fake'

Maxwell is serving 20-year sentence after helping Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse girls

Virginia Giuffre has said that this photo of her posing with Prince Andrew was taken at Ghislaine Maxwell's London home. AFP
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The disgraced socialite Ghislaine Maxwell has claimed in a prison interview that a photograph of Prince Andrew with his sexual abuse accuser Virginia Giuffre is "fake".

The decades-old photo shows 17-year-old Ms Giuffre standing beside the prince with Maxwell in the background and was purported to have been taken at her London town house in the upmarket Belgravia neighbourhood.

Maxwell is in a Florida penitentiary after her conviction and 20-year sentence for helping the late financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse girls.

Ms Giuffre said Maxwell told her to do for Prince Andrew what she had for Epstein, and that after the photo was taken she went dancing with a “sweaty” Andrew.

Now 39, Ms Giuffre sued the discredited royal in a US court, claiming they had sex in London when she was 17 and a minor under US law.

He settled the sexual assault lawsuit at considerable cost last year, sparing him the public humiliation of a trial. He was stripped of his military titles amid public outrage over the reported $16.3 million settlement, which is said to have been paid by his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.

In spite of first-hand witness accounts, Prince Andrew has not been criminally charged and continues to deny the accusations.

But in her interview with TalkTV, set to air in the UK on Monday evening, Maxwell, who has known the prince for decades, is adamant the image is not genuine.

"It's a fake," she states. "I don't believe it's real for a second, in fact I'm sure it's not.

"There's never been an original and further there is no photograph. I've only ever seen a photo-copy of it."

In an embarrassing BBC interview in 2019, Prince Andrew also questioned the photo's authenticity.

"I don't believe that photograph was taken in the way that has been suggested," he said.

"It's a photograph of a photograph of a photograph ... nobody can prove whether or not that photograph has been doctored."

Maxwell, 60, was moved to FCI Tallahassee, a low-security prison in Florida’s capital in July, from the Brooklyn jail where she had spent the past two years under close watch after Epstein took his own life in jail in August 2019, the Federal Bureau of Prisons said.

She appealed her conviction and 20-year sentence in July.

Ghislaine Maxwell's sentencing - in pictures

Agencies contributed to this report

Updated: January 22, 2023, 5:28 PM