Jeffrey's Favorite - The Story of Virginia Guiffre
Trigger Warning: this article contains discussion of sexual abuse and suicide.
Virginia Giuffre's story was something I thought I knew from sound bites and 30-second TikTok shorts. The girl who worked at Mar-a-Lago. The one who ended up in Epstein's clutches. The woman who reappeared, and then disappeared just as quickly. Devastating, but still so simple.
On Wednesday her story took center stage once again, as Donald Trump admitted he knew of her, that she'd worked at Mar-a-Lago, and claimed that Jeffrey Epstein had stolen her away, painting himself as some sort of put-out martyr, understaffed and barely scraping by. If this was even sort of true then 90% of the documentation we do have from the DOJ wouldn't exist. Which is why it's not. But we'll get back to that in a minute. Let's talk about Virginia.
Virginia (nee Roberts) was born in Sacramento, CA and relocated to Palm Beach County, FL when she was four years-old, around 1987. While details about her childhood are foggy, it is known that she was molested by a family friend around the age of seven, and spent most of her formative years in foster care.
"I was just so mentally scarred already at such a young age, and I ran away from that." - Virginia Giuffre
Virginia eventually ended up living on the streets at the age of 12, where she dealt with even more "hunger, and pain, and abuse," including at the hands of sex trafficker Ron Eppinger. Eppinger recruited young women and girls "under the guise of offering them modeling jobs" at his front, "Perfect 10.” Eppinger would confiscate their passports and force the girls into prostitution, threatening to harm their families if they tried to run. He would eventually be arrested and sentenced to a mere 21 months in federal prison.
Around the age of 14 Virginia returned home to her father, who worked as a maintenance manager at Mar-a-Lago. When she was in high school he got her a job as a locker-room attendant in the spa, where she became interested in massage therapy. About a year later Virginia was approached by a "poised and sophisticated" British woman, who noticed the girl reading a book on massage techniques and offered her a job interview. The woman, Ghislaine Maxwell, promised to teach her how to become a massage therapist, which would give her a decent income and the chance to travel. Of course she jumped at the chance.
"The deceit hurts even more because I fell naively into her trap… you tell that to any 16-year-old and they’re going to jump at it." - Virginia Giuffre
Maxwell took Virginia back to Jeffrey Epstein's Palm Beach mansion, where the girl opened up to her new bosses about her difficult childhood, even telling them about the sexual abuse she'd endured, all while Maxwell instructed her to massage a naked Epstein. That night the pair would both force themselves on Virginia, the first of many times.
"They seemed like nice people so I trusted them." - Virginia Giuffre
Soon after, the pair began taking Virginia back to Epstein's mansion in New York City, then to his private island, Little Saint James, and down to Zorro Ranch in New Mexico. Still training the now 17-year-old girl under the guise of professional massage, Maxwell and Epstein introduced her to a number of wealthy men in politics, academia, and royalty. And even though her father often accompanied her on the trips, he claimed to have missed the abuse.
"She's a very good actress." - Sky Roberts
For over two years Virginia would be Epstein and Maxwell's favorite victim, rarely leaving their side, unless it was to meet another man for a short period of time before being reeled back in. One of the most high-profile men she was forced to have sex with was Prince Andrew, Duke of York, the second-youngest child of Queen Elizabeth, and freshly divorced from Sarah Ferguson. After visiting the exclusive private nightclub Tramp in central London with Maxwell and Epstein, Virginia was told to "do for Andrew what I do for Jeffrey,” which she did later that night in Maxwell's townhouse. The Prince would deny these allegations, claiming to have been settling in after a children's pizza party. Virginia said that, in all, she met Prince Andrew three times, including visits to New York and Epstein's private island. Epstein paid her $15,000 for the meet-ups in order to stay quiet, though flight logs would later confirm her story.
“During each of the aforementioned incidents, [Giuffre] was compelled by express or implied threats by Epstein, Maxwell, and/or Prince Andrew to engage in sexual acts with Prince Andrew, and feared death of physical injury to herself or another and other repercussions for disobeying Epstein, Maxwell, and Prince Andrew due to their powerful connections, wealth, and authority." - Court documents
In a 2015 defamation lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell, Virginia would describe herself as a "sex slave," alleging to have had sex with hedge-fund billionaire Glenn Dubin, former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, MIT computer scientist Marvin Minsky, former Democratic Senator Majority Leader George Mitchell, modeling industry mogul Jean-Luc Brunel (who would later be held on suspicion of rape and trafficking, and commit suicide in a French jail cell), another unnamed prince, foreign president, and owner of "a French hotel chain," and lawyer Alan Dershowitz. The lawsuit was settled in Virginia's favor for an undisclosed amount in 2017, but she said later that she may have misidentified Dershowitz and dropped her suit against him.
"I have long believed that I was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein to Alan Dershowitz. However I was very young at the time, it was a very stressful and traumatic environment. I now recognize I may have made a mistake in identifying Mr. Dershowitz." - Virginia Giuffre
Dershowitz, a high-profile attorney with 60 years of cases under his belt, not to mention $20 million, had countersued.
After two years and dozens of flights (corroborated in the flight logs) Jeffrey Epstein lost interest in the 19-year-old Virginia, who he now viewed as being "too old,” and began focusing on younger girls. She used the newfound freedom as an opportunity to fly to Thailand to train as an actual massage therapist, which Epstein agreed to pay for if she brought him back a young Thai girl. But while she was in Thailand she met and fell in love with a man named Robert Giuffre, whom she married after just 10 days. When she called Epstein to let him know that she wouldn't be returning, with or without a new victim, he responded "have a nice life" and hung up the phone.
Years later Virginia would try to report Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein, but under threat backed down. She tried again in 2010 after the birth of her daughter, stronger and more courageous as a mother of a young girl whom she didn't want to "grow up in a world that is so vicious." And while her brave testimony led to the arrest and imprisonment of both Maxwell and Epstein (who would commit suicide before going to trial), a life of abuse is nearly impossible to heal from, and the same cycles often reappear in different ways.
Virginia separated from Robert Giuffre in 2024, stating that he had abused her for many years, and court documents released in her litigation against Maxwell would show that he was arrested in 2015 for domestic violence. By 2025 Virginia, herself, had a family-violence restraining order that prevented her from seeing her children. And in a March 30th Instagram post Virginia stated she'd gotten into a terrible car accident and had "four days to live," though nothing seemed to indicate she would die from her injuries. Her family stated that she was "banged up and bruised," but was later discharged from the hospital.
A month later, on April 25th, Virginia Giuffre died by suicide at her home in Neergabby, Western Australia at the age of 41 "after being a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking."
This brings us back to Donald Trump's statement about Virginia being "stolen" from Mar-a-Lago in 2000, giving that as his reason for breaking off the relationship with his good buddy, Jeffrey Epstein. First off, that's insulting. Virginia (Roberts) Giuffre told nothing but the truth, to the best of her ability, in the years since being abused by Jeffrey Epstein, Prince Andrew, any number of men, and in the vicinity of Palm Beach, Little Saint James, New York City, Santa Fe, and even Mar-a-Lago, where she worked as a child in the spa and was trafficked to work for Jeffrey Epstein.
That's the first thing.
Secondly, the timeline doesn't add up.
1999 - Virginia (Roberts) Giuffre is hired at Mar-a-Lago
2000 - She's recruited by Maxwell to work for Epstein
2002 - Trump is interviewed by New York Magazine: "I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side."
Maison de L’Amitie, Palm Beach 2004 - Trump and Epstein have a falling out over a bidding war on the Maison de L’Amitié in Palm Beach
2025 - "He stole her. I said, listen, we don’t want you taking our people. And then not too long after that, he did it again. And I said—out of here." - Donald Trump
So if there was even a breath of truth to Trump's statement that he fell out with "terrific guy Jeff" for being suddenly understaffed at Mar-a-Lago in the summer of 2000, he wouldn't get upset about it until he won the bidding war and purchased his new house in late 2004 for $41,350,000 (which he sold 3 years later for $95 million).
In conclusion, yet again, Donald Trump is lying about his history surrounding Jeffrey Epstein. Why? Your guess is as good as mine (and probably just as true).
This article is dedicated to Virginia (Roberts) Giuffre, who bravely stepped forward to put two child rapists behind bars, protecting hundreds of other young girls from the same fate.
May her memory be a blessing.
Ellie is an author, editor, and owner of Red Pencil Transcripts, and works with filmmakers, podcasts, and journalists all over the world. She lives with her family just outside of New York City.
Why does everyone accept those in charge claiming it was suicide? Her family doesn’t accept it - she herself warned if they say I died from suicide do not do not believe it. 2 or 3 other “suicides” with those
involved with this horror show - why are we accepting all these “suicides” seriously - why ???
I tried, but I started weeping three paragraphs in. I’m going to have to read this in parts, maybe not at night. My heart is broken for her, for her family, and for the other victims. Thank you for letting the world know so we cannot forget.