Disgraced former socialite Ghislaine Maxwell has claimed in a jailhouse interview with a U.Ok. broadcaster that a decades-old photograph of Prince Andrew together with his sexual abuse accuser Virginia Giuffre is "pretend."
Maxwell, a good friend to British royalty, is imprisoned in Florida after her conviction and 20-year sentence for serving to late financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse women.
Giuffre has claimed she was trafficked by the pair to, amongst others, Andrew, King Charles III's youthful brother.
The 39-year-old sued the discredited royal in a United States court docket, claiming that they had intercourse in London when she was 17 and a minor beneath U.S regulation.
He settled the sexual assault lawsuit at appreciable price final yr, sparing him the general public humiliation of a trial.
The prince, 62, has not been criminally charged and has continued to disclaim the accusations.
However he stepped again from royal duties and was stripped of his navy titles amid a public outcry over the reported $16.3 million settlement.
A photograph of Andrew together with his arm round Giuffre's waist and Maxwell standing subsequent to them — mentioned to have been taken in London in 2001 — is seen as essential to the declare in opposition to the prince.
However in her U.S. federal jail interview with TalkTV, set to air within the U.Ok. on Monday night, Maxwell, who has recognized him for many years, is adamant the picture will not be real.
"It is a pretend. I do not imagine it is actual for a second, in actual fact I am certain it is not," she states. "There's by no means been an authentic and additional there isn't any photograph. I've solely ever seen a photocopy of it."
The late Queen Elizabeth II's youngest son has insisted he had by no means met Giuffre, and in a disastrous 2019 BBC interview additionally appeared to query the picture's authenticity.
"I do not imagine that photograph was taken in the way in which that has been advised," he advised the broadcaster on the time. "It is a photograph of a photograph of a photograph ... No one can show whether or not or not that photograph has been doctored."
The feedback by Maxwell, who's interesting her U.S. conviction, come as British newspapers mentioned Sunday that Andrew will bid to overturn the expensive settlement he agreed with Giuffre nearly a yr in the past.
It follows her dropping a separate abuse declare in opposition to movie star lawyer Alan Dershowitz.
The Solar reported Andrew was consulting U.S. legal professionals Andrew Brettler and Blair Berk and hopes to power a retraction and even an apology, which it added may pave the way in which for a royal rehabilitation.
"I can let you know with confidence that the Prince Andrew crew is now contemplating authorized choices," a "well-placed supply" advised the tabloid.
A consultant for Andrew couldn't instantly be reached for remark.
Below a reported gagging clause within the settlement, Giuffre has been unable to speak publicly in regards to the declare, however that's mentioned to be set to finish subsequent month.
In a earlier jailhouse interview for a particular that aired on Paramount+, Maxwell additionally forged doubt on the well-known picture — regardless that Maxwell had beforehand indicated in an e mail to Dershowitz that the picture was actual.
In that interview, Maxwell mentioned that "assembly Epstein was the best mistake of my life."
"If I may return immediately, I might keep away from assembly him, and I might say that that may be the best mistake I've ever made, and I might make completely different selections for the place I might work," Maxwell mentioned.
Requested if she seems like a sufferer of Epstein herself, Maxwell mentioned, "I do not notably just like the phrase sufferer. It is one which needs to be used very sparingly as a result of, you already know, immediately all people is a sufferer of one thing."