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Prince Andrew was seen driving his Range Rover this morning, just hours before his former friend Ghislaine Maxwell covered up to speak from behind bars.
The 62-year-old Duke of York has kept a low profile since reaching a settlement reportedly worth £12 million with his accuser Virginia Roberts, 38, who claimed she was trafficked through pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
In her interview with Talk TV, Ghislaine Maxwell, 61, who was convicted of procuring girls for Epstein, said she wishes she had never met the business mogul.
Maxwell also referred to the infamous photo of her, Virginia Roberts and Prince Andrew, allegedly taken at their London home in 2001, insisting the photo was doctored.
Prince Andrew, 62, was seen driving his Range Rover this morning, just hours before his former friend Ghislaine Maxwell covered up to speak from behind bars.
In her interview with Talk TV, Ghislaine Maxwell, 61, who was convicted of procuring girls for Jeffrey Epstein, said she wishes she had never met the business mogul.
Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in a US prison last year after being convicted of luring girls to massage parlors so Epstein could abuse them between 1994 and 2004.
In an interview for TalkTV’s Jeremy Kyle Live: Ghislaine Behind Bars, which aired Monday night, Maxwell also said he believes Epstein was murdered.
Epstein was found dead in his cell at a federal jail in Manhattan in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
His death was ruled a suicide.
Maxwell said: ‘I think he was murdered. I was shocked. So I wondered how it happened because, as far as I was concerned, he was going to… I was sure he was going to appeal. And he was sure that he was covered by the non-prosecution agreement.
But I was not in the prosecution. They didn’t mention me. I wasn’t even one of the co-conspirators.
‘Honestly, I wish I’d never met him.
‘Looking back now, I probably wish I had stayed in England. But putting that aside, you know, I tried to go off and start another new job and move on from late ’98, ’99.
‘So I wish I had been more successful moving on… Because I had been a banker and I should have moved on completely.’
Maxwell said he “didn’t know” that Epstein “was so awful”, though “obviously now, looking back in hindsight, of course”.
She added: ‘But at the time, I mean I had a lot of friends. He was friends with almost everyone you can imagine. There was no reason to imagine that he was someone of interest to people.
Maxwell also said that the well-known photograph showing the Duke of York with Virginia Giuffre is false.
Said to have been taken inside Maxwell’s Mayfair home, the photograph shows Andrew with his arm around Mrs Giuffre.
Maxwell said: ‘Well, it’s false. I don’t think it’s real. In fact, I’m sure it isn’t… There has never been an original. Also, there is no photography; I’ve only seen a photocopy of it.
‘I don’t think it happened, certainly in the way it’s described. It would have been impossible. I have no recollection of going to [nightclub] Homeless [where Ms Guiffre said Andrew danced with her].
The famous photo of the Duke of York, Virginia Giuffre and Ghislaine Maxwell
‘Certainly not an outfit I would have worn.’
Ms Giuffre sued Andrew for allegedly sexually assaulting her when she was 17 after Epstein, a former associate of Maxwell, trafficked her.
Andrew has also questioned the validity of the image of him with Mrs Giuffre, formerly known as Virginia Roberts.
The Duke paid millions to settle a civil sexual assault case involving Mrs Giuffre, a woman he claimed he had never met.
He previously said he “doesn’t remember” meeting Ms Giuffre and cast doubt on the image, claiming she is “not someone to hug” or “show affection” in public.
In an interview with BBC Newsnight in 2019, Andrew said that although he recognized himself in the photo with Ms Giuffre, he stated that it is not possible to prove whether the image has been faked.