Ghislaine Maxwell appeared to confirm the authenticity of a long-speculated about photo taken of former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Virginia Giuffre.
Andrew’s ties to Epstein have been a matter of public knowledge for years, with the infamous photo found at the heart of the many claims suggesting he had a close personal relationship with the convicted pedophile.
Following years of dogged speculation, Andrew was stripped of his royal titles in October 2025, as well as ordered to leave his long-term residence in Windsor. This followed the release of Virginia Giuffre’s post-humour memoir, as well as heightened scrutiny surrounding the pending release of the Epstein files by the Department of Justice.
Giuffre alleged in her memoir that she was forced to have sex with Andrew on three separate occasions. The former prince has vehemently denied any and all such accusations.
Andrew has also denied ever meeting Giuffre, despite the emergence of an image showing the 65-year-old with his arm around her waist. At the time, Giuffre was only 17 years old, while Ghislaine Maxwell (currently serving 20 years in prison after being convicted on five counts of sex trafficking of minors) can also be seen in the photo, reportedly taken at her home in Mayfair, London.
Andrew has long maintained that the photo in question is doctored in some way, though Maxwell’s own thoughts on the image have now come to light within last week’s release of 3.5 million new files linked to Jeffrey Epstein.
Maxwell, it appears, confirmed to Epstein that the photo with Andrew and Giuffre is, in fact, real.
Writing in a statement drafted with Epstein, Maxwell penned: “In 2001 I was in London when (redacted) met a number of friends of mine including Prince Andrew. A photograph was taken as I imagine she wanted to show it to friends and family. I never asked (redacted) to give him a massage.”
She continued: “I am stating for the record as fact” before adding: “Prince Andrew came to my house to visit me – (redacted) was in the house and they did meet.”
Maxwell went on to claim she had “no knowledge” of Giuffre “having sexual activity” with Andrew.
Esptein replied to the draft statement, opining that there were “too many unanswered questions.”
At the time, Maxwell had planned to discredit Giuffre’s claims. “The salacious claims she makes are untrue and made purely for financial gain,” she said.
“The relentless media harassment to which I, Alan Dershowitz and Prince Andrew have been subjected to over the last week has become intolerable and breaches any justifiable sense of natural justice.”
The information included in the files contradicts what Maxwell said about the Andrew/Giuffre photo in 2023.
“It’s a fake. I don’t believe it’s real for a second, in fact I’m sure it’s not,” she told TalkTV three years ago.
“Well, there’s never been an original and further there’s no photograph, and I’ve only ever seen a photocopy of it.”
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