British royal Prince Andrew has conceded the serving of an unprecedented sexual assault lawsuit brought against him in the US.
In a joint stipulation filed on Friday at the Manhattan federal court in New York, the prince and his accuser, Virginia Giuffre, agreed that the suit was effectively served as of Tuesday, September 21.
Based on that date, the prince reportedly has until October 12 to file a response, although that deadline could be extended to October 29, with the consent of Giuffre's legal team.
Giuffre, has long accused the Duke of York, the second son of Queen Elizabeth II, of sexually abusing her in London on the night of March 10 2001 when she was 17 years old was known by her maiden name, Virginia Roberts.
She also testified that she had been "trafficked" on a flight from the US for sex parties by the late millionaire sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, and his alleged accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, the daughter of the disgraced late Czechoslovak-British newspaper tycoon, Robert Maxwell.
Giuffre's testimony states that she and Andrew went to the Tramp private members' club in London's West End, before going back to Maxwell's house in the swanky Belgravia district and then having sex.
Andrew has insisted that he has an alibi, insisting that he was at home that day and took his daughter and several others to a party at the Woking branch of the Pizza Express fast-food restaurant chain.
“I was with the children and I’d taken Beatrice to a Pizza Express in Woking for a party at I suppose four or five in the afternoon," the prince said in a 2019 YV interview. "And then because the duchess was away, we have a simple rule in the family that when one is away the other is there.”
He also claims that he has "no recollection" of the widely-circulated photograph of him with his arm around Giuffre - at the time 17 - with Maxwell clearly smiling in the background.