Major publishing houses in the US are concerned releasing her memoir could spark a lawsuit due to inconsistencies in her story and other potential issues. Photo / Getty Images
Major publishing houses in the US are concerned releasing her memoir could spark a lawsuit due to inconsistencies in her story and other potential issues. Photo / Getty Images
Prince Andrew’s sexual abuse accuser Virginia Giuffre is struggling to find a publisher for her memoir because of the “serious legal challenges” it could spark.
The 39 year old - who accused late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his one-time girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell of arranging and forcing her into having sex with the Duke of York when she was 17 - is said to have spent 12 years working on the tome.
Though she planned to go into details about when she met the disgraced royal, even if she avoids the issue of their alleged intimate encounter, major publishing houses in the US are concerned releasing her memoir could spark a lawsuit due to inconsistencies in her story and other potential issues.
A source told RadarOnline.com “The outline of Virginia’s memoir has been shopped for years. The problem is that every major US publisher has seen various iterations of it - and some of the material has been cut, other elements added.
“It’s not a consistent story. This presents very serious legal challenges for anyone. At least one major publisher which considered printing it had no choice but to tell her, ‘thanks, but no thanks.’”
Giuffre signed a confidentiality clause as part of the out-of-court settlement she reached with Andrew - who has denied the allegations against him - before going to trial last year, but it is due to expire within the next few weeks, though it is believed she may still be barred from repeating her claims.
Giuffre accused late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his one-time girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell of arranging and forcing her into having sex with the Duke of York when she was 17. Photo / Getty Images
And she is said to be keen to publish her bombshell book before the coronation of the Prince’s brother, King Charles, in May.
A source previously said: “All eyes will be on the royal family in the weeks leading up to Charles’s coronation.
“Book releases are all about timing, and while there is speculation about whether Andrew will be seen at Westminster Abbey or on the Buckingham Palace balcony, what is certain he will be seen on every bookshelf around the world.”
Prince Andrew is said to have been consulting lawyers in the hope of overturning the settlement agreement with Virginia Giuffre. Photo / Getty Images
In November, Giuffre - who now lives in Australia - dropped a sexual abuse claim against Alan Dershowitz, admitting after an eight-year legal battle she “may have made a mistake” in claiming Donald Trump’s former lawyer had abused her as a teenager. The Prince reportedly believes the “extraordinary” development has raised questions around her credibility, giving him hope to clear his name.
A batch of court records relating to Giuffre’s lawsuit against Maxwell, which was settled in May 2017, included a 139-page manuscript called The Billionaire’s Playboy Club which detailed her life as a sex slave for more than two years when she was 17 and spoke of the encounters she had with Epstein and his associates, including an allegation she was “pimped out” to high-profile men including Prince Andrew and Dershowitz.
Giuffre claimed the manuscript was “99 per cent true”, though her lawyers admitted some was “fictionalised” and she later confirmed a two-night liaison with the Duke in New Mexico had never happened.
Andrew’s lawyers wanted the manuscript considered as evidence in the civil case but the request was denied by the judge.
