Virginia Roberts Giuffre was a driving force in exposing what federal prosecutors later called a sex trafficking ring in which Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell exploited hundreds of minors and young women. Now Giuffre's memoir is poised to tell more of her story: It will be published posthumously, months after Giuffre died by suicide at age 41.
Giuffre's 400-page memoir, Nobody's Girl, will come out on Oct. 21, according to Alfred A. Knopf. The publisher describes Giuffre as "the woman whose decision to speak out helped send both serial abusers to prison, whose photograph with Prince Andrew catalyzed his fall from grace."
News of the book's publication comes months after Giuffre's death in April in Australia — the country where she had created a new life for herself as a mother and housewife.
"She left behind a memoir written in the years preceding her death and stated unequivocally that she wanted it published," Knopf says. "Nobody's Girl is the riveting and powerful story of an ordinary girl who would grow up to confront extraordinary adversity."
In court records that have been unsealed — including depositions and an earlier, unpublished memoir — Giuffre described how patterns of molestation and abuse warped her early life. In those documents, she narrated multiple instances where she said adults offered to help the teenage, freckle-faced Virginia Roberts, but turned out instead to be sexual predators.
The upcoming memoir tells that story, Knopf says, but it also details Giuffre's fight to extricate herself and seek accountability for the crimes committed against her and others.
Giuffre's story is intertwined with wealthy and powerful people. In a 2016 deposition, she testified that she was a teenager working as a locker room attendant in Florida at President Trump's Mar-a-Lago Resort and Spa in 2000 when Maxwell approached her to discuss massages. Giuffre says the conversation led to abuse by Epstein, who lived nearby.
Maxwell has denied many details of Giuffre's account. In 2022, Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison for helping to operate a sex-trafficking ring that included the abuse of underage girls.
Last month, Trump said he stopped socializing with Epstein after they had a falling out over Epstein hiring away girls and young women from Mar-a-Lago. The president has also repeatedly urged his supporters and fellow Republicans to dismiss theories that the government is withholding evidence related to Epstein, such as a "client list" of elite friends with whom he ordered minors and young women to have sex.
In a recent conversation with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Maxwell, who has said she is not guilty of the trafficking charges, said she did not see Trump, former President Bill Clinton or other high-profile men acting inappropriately while they were visiting Epstein, according to transcripts.
The unusual discussion took place a week before the government transferred Maxwell from a low-security prison in Tallahassee, Fla., to a women's minimum-security prison camp in Bryan, Texas.
Giuffre's earlier memoir, released in court papers, was titled The Billionaire's Playboy Club. In it, she described having anxiety, nightmares and other lingering effects of traumatic abuse as she started a family in Australia.
She also said she was motivated to step forward with allegations against Epstein after a U.S. federal agent informed her that she was identified as a victim in Epstein's controversial plea deal in Florida that became official in 2008.
The arrangement included a provision for a victims' compensation fund — and Giuffre said she decided to call the law firm that was listed as handling victims' claims.
"Now it was my turn, I had the choice to turn the tables on him hoping he would feel embarrassed and in the spotlight," Giuffre wrote of Epstein in the earlier manuscript.
In 2009, Giuffre sued Epstein, alleging that he "engaged in a child exploitation enterprise," transported minors for illegal activities, and used hidden cameras in his Palm Beach mansion to create child pornography.
Epstein settled Giuffre's lawsuit against him for more than $500,000. The deal was unsealed in January 2022; one month later, Prince Andrew also agreed to a settlement ending a lawsuit from Giuffre.
Epstein died in 2019 while in federal custody at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. Officials later concluded that he died by suicide, but public skepticism about Epstein's death persists.
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