Prince Andrew has settled a lawsuit brought by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, an accuser of Jeffrey Epstein, who had alleged the British royal sexually assaulted her when she was 17.
The settlement was announced in a court filing on Tuesday. Its precise terms were not disclosed, although it will include a “substantial donation” from Prince Andrew to a victims charity run by Giuffre, as well as an acknowledgment that she had “suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks”.
In return, Prince Andrew will be spared a trial that threatened to heap further embarrassment on the royal family for his association with a convicted sex offender.
The Duke of York was forced to abandon his royal duties in 2019 after a catastrophic BBC interview in which he struggled to account for his friendship with Epstein, who was found hanged in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial on charges of trafficking underage girls for sex.
Giuffre has been among the most prominent of Epstein’s victims. She claimed to have been abused by Epstein and his longtime confidante, Ghislaine Maxwell, beginning when she was 16.
She filed a civil suit against Prince Andrew last August, claiming that she had been pressured by Epstein and Maxwell to have sex with the royal on three occasions when she was under 18. Prince Andrew denied this and said he had no recollection of ever meeting Giuffre despite a widely-circulated photograph of the pair together.
In a joint court filing on Tuesday, lawyers for the two sides said: “Prince Andrew intends to make a substantial donation to Ms Giuffre’s charity in support of victims’ rights.”
The statement continued: “It is known that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked countless young girls over many years. Prince Andrew regrets his association with Epstein, and commends the bravery of Ms. Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others.”
Prince Andrew intended to demonstrate his regret by “supporting the fight against the evils of sex trafficking”, the filing said.
Prince Andrew came under mounting scrutiny in late December when Maxwell was convicted on five of six criminal charges by a New York jury for her role in luring underage girls for Epstein to abuse. She is appealing against the verdict.
A federal judge in January rejected Prince Andrew’s attempt to have the case dismissed.