Prince Andrew's Ex Claims Duke's Photo With Virginia Giuffre Was Staged Using 'Irish Body Double'
12:20 GMT 04.02.2022 (Updated: 15:18 GMT 28.05.2023)
© Sputnik / Andrey Mosienko
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Prince Andrew and Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who accuses him of sexually abusing her when she was a minor, are engaged in an ongoing legal battle, with the embattled Duke denying any wrongdoing and actively trying to dismiss the case.
Lady Victoria Hervey, who is a former girlfriend of Prince Andrew, has alleged in her Instagram stories that the notorious photo of Prince Andrew and his accuser-to-be Virginia Roberts Giuffre was not real.
Hervey rolled out what appears to be an image of Giuffre cut out from the widely-known picture, asking "Anyone familiar with this photo?"
"Do you believe that photo is real?" she continued. "Or what if I told you a survivor of Epsteins [sic] told me it's an Irish body double that was edited in."
The "painting of the original image", along with a bunch of other "clues", is highlighted in Hervey's Instagram under the title "Evidence 2/2/22".
Screenshot
© Photo : Instagram / @ladyvictoriahervey
And here is the photo that Andrew's ex has labelled as fake:
Prince Andrew, Virginia Giuffre, and Ghislaine Maxwell.
© AFP 2023 / US District Court - Southern District of New York (SDNY)
"But the guy they used in it is in fact a body double that they photoshopped Andrew's head onto," Hervey claimed. "Maria Farmer edited it together with Virginia."
She offers a closer look at what she described as a "body double" as well.
Screenshot
© Photo : Instagram / @ladyvictoriahervey
Giuffre, one of the alleged victims of the late American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has accused Prince Andrew of sexually abusing her when she was a minor. The Duke has vehemently denied the allegations, claiming that he does not remember ever meeting Giuffre. The accuser, in her turn, referred specifically to the notorious photo showing her in the company of young Prince Andrew and Epstein's ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.
Prince Andrew, however, has challenged the authenticity of the photo.
“From the investigations that we’ve done, you can’t prove whether or not that photograph is faked or not because it is a photograph of a photograph of a photograph," Andrew told BBC in his infamous 2019 interview. "Nobody can prove whether or not that photograph has been doctored but I don’t recollect that photograph ever being taken.”
Giuffre asserted that she gave the photo to the FBI and "it’s an authentic photo" with a date on its back showing when it was printed.
Last week, a source familiar with the Duke's legal strategy told The Daily Beast that Prince Andrew considered the photograph “irrelevant” unless and until the original was produced. A source familiar with the Giuffre's strategy, in its turn, told the outlet that they did not know whether the original still existed.
Hervey, who now stepped forward to defend Prince Andrew, had earlier called the sentencing of Ghislaine Maxwell a "witch hunt". Maxwell had been convicted on several sex trafficking charges. Social media users, however, quickly recalled Lady Victoria accusing Maxwell of using her as "bait" to entertain Epstein's friends - something that Hervey asserted in ITV's Ghislaine, Prince Andrew and the Pedophile documentary.
