A British prince was arrested at 8 a.m. and stripped of his title. Ambassadors, politicians, and many other high-profile men lost their prestigious jobs. Millions of files related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were released, and a U.S. president remains under scrutiny. So much has happened since Virginia Roberts Giuffre died in April last year, and since her memoir Nobody’s Girl was published six months later, telling the full story of her abuse by Epstein and his associates for the first time. “This year has been extraordinary,” says Sky Roberts, Giuffre’s younger brother. “I just wish Virginia was here to see it.”
He is determined that there will be many more advances to come. Giuffre became one of the most recognizable survivors of Epstein. In the midst of grief, Sky and his wife, Amanda, have become accidental advocates. “She paved the way, and we want to keep paving that road forward for other survivors out there,” says Sky.
They’re speaking from their home in Colorado, in a room filled with photographs and mementos, like the butterfly symbol Giuffre used for her cause. They haven’t done interviews from this room before. “I see her all around me,” says Sky, who apologizes for getting “teary-eyed sometimes, so just bear with me.” They have two children and a background in retail management and property investing, not politics. “We got thrust into it. Within months after Giuffre’s death, we were in advocacy work,” says Sky. “A lot of it was driven by a sense of purpose. Virginia used to say, ‘How do you turn pain into purpose?’ And I couldn’t allow her story to be told by people who didn’t know her or really understand who she was.”
They are about to relaunch Giuffre’s organization, Soar (Speak Out, Act, Reclaim), and are campaigning to get Virginia’s Law passed in the U.S. This would remove the federal statute of limitations in sexual abuse cases. They also want to keep pressure on to release the rest of the Epstein documents and keep him and his associates in the public eye. All of this is happening against a government—and a president named many times in the files—that seems to be doing everything it can to make the whole thing go away. “We always expected to support Virginia when she was ready to move forward with her nonprofit,” says Amanda. “We didn’t expect to do it without her. It became this idea that we couldn’t let her story end there.” Doing it without Giuffre, who died by suicide, says Sky, “it’s a giant hole in your stomach and in your heart.”
“I wish I could have told her how proud I was, because that takes so much courage, and I know it was hard for her.”
In the public mind, Giuffre is both the smiling girl in that infamous photo—the then-Prince Andrew’s arm around her waist—and the strong woman speaking up, often outside courthouses, for survivors of sex trafficking. Her memoir showed her to be resilient, overcoming unimaginable abuse that went back to childhood. Her final months showed her to be complex, still struggling, and whose life had once again fallen apart. At the time of her death at age 41, she was separated from her husband and had not been allowed to see her three children. Sky and Amanda don’t have contact with them, though Amanda says she hopes they can be part of Giuffre’s work and legacy “when they’re ready.” There is an ongoing battle over her estate.
“It’s complicated,” says Sky, “and this is why you can never fit a survivor’s story into a neat box—it doesn’t exist that way.” When Giuffre told him she would be writing a book about her life, she warned it would be hard to read, becausePart of it is his story, too. “I remember Virginia saying to me, ‘If I’m going to tell my story, I have to tell all of it.’ That’s one of the hardest parts, because you grow up hoping or looking at your parents as heroes, and it was like this…” He pauses, trying to find the words and failing, because there are none. “It was this painfully tragic sort of feeling.”
Several years ago, she told Sky and their older brother, Danny, that their father had abused her. Both had young daughters, and she couldn’t bear the thought of them not knowing. Reading the full extent of it in her memoir, along with all the other abuse she suffered, “I just wish that I could have told her…” Sky breaks down. “I wish I could have told her how proud I was, because that takes so much courage, and I know it was hard for her. It’s necessary to understand how all the other things play into it, because [our father] was the first person to abuse Virginia. She was so brave, because she said, ‘If I don’t tell my whole story, then I’m not showing the weaving of how this actually works,’ and how you get groomed from a very young age all the way up until, really, the end of her life.”
The family lived on a modest farm in Loxahatchee, Florida. Virginia was the middle child; Danny was from her mother’s previous marriage, and Sky was born five years after her. “I was the legit annoying little brother, but she was just a one-of-a-kind person from a very young age,” Sky says. “She was really the one who always looked out for me; Virginia always had that motherly instinct. She was so fun to be around. She was just a joy. She could make you laugh in a heartbeat, but I think the reason she was such a strong advocate as well is because she was always a protector. It’s clear why, now, when you read Nobody’s Girl. You understand what she went through. I always remember her basically shielding me from any evil that could potentially touch me.”
Giuffre writes that her father started sexually abusing her when she was around seven years old. She alleged that her father threatened to kill Sky if she told anyone. Years later, Epstein would do exactly the same, throwing down a photograph taken of her younger brother on his way to school.
Sky doesn’t have a relationship with his father, who has denied all the allegations, writing to Wallace to say: “Just to straighten this out, I never abused my daughter.” Sky is firm: “I always say I wholeheartedly believe my sister. Virginia has been proven to be a truth-teller time and time again.” It sickened him, Sky says, when their father came forward in the media to talk about Giuffre after her death and suggested she had not taken her own life. “That was another huge motivator for me,” he says, of the decision to step up and speak for his sister.
As a child, Giuffre was a keen reader and a girl who loved climbing trees and exploring the Florida wilderness around their home. She loved animals and had wanted to be a vet. But by her early teens, she was skipping school and emotionally unstable. The other horrors Giuffre was subjected to, all before she was 16, are almost too much to list — being raped by two boys while unconscious in the back of a car, followed by time at a treatment center for teenagers that was later shut down for mistreating the young people who were supposed to be in its care. When she ran away, she was picked up by a man who raped her at gunpoint. Then, hours later, traumatized and bloodied by the side of the road, she was picked up by another man, Ron Eppinger.
Virginia and Sky as children. Illustration: courtesy of the family of Virginia Roberts Giuffre
She was 15 and abused by Eppinger — who would later plead guilty to sex trafficking — for around six months. When she was back with her parents in Florida, her father, a maintenance worker at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort…He got her a job there. That’s where she met Ghislaine Maxwell – in Giuffre’s version, Maxwell spots her from her limo like a shark hunting its prey – and Maxwell introduced her to Epstein.
Amy Wallace, the journalist who co-wrote Giuffre’s book, says, “You have to understand what happened to her at seven, eight, and beyond to understand why, when she meets Epstein at 16, she doesn’t just run away – she ends up staying in their world for over two years.” Like Sky and Amanda, the ghostwriter has become an advocate for Giuffre. We talk while she’s in the UK to discuss the paperback release of the book. It frustrates her when people claim Giuffre stayed with Epstein for the lifestyle – and later supposedly saw a financial opportunity when she took settlements – when in reality she was a vulnerable, desperate child, repeatedly hurt by the adults around her. “When you’re seven and someone very close to you tells you that your only value in this world is to serve their sexual pleasure, that destroys your self-worth and makes you believe that’s how the world works.” Wallace pauses briefly. “And in her life, it really was.”
Sky was about 11 when his sister got involved with Epstein and Maxwell – too young to feel anything but impressed that she was traveling and meeting celebrities. “I remember her telling me about certain people she’d met. I see those people very differently now.” He was also too young to know she was suffering, and anyway, he says, “Virginia had a way of putting up a front when she needed to.”
When Giuffre started speaking out – prompted by the birth of her third child, a daughter, and by Epstein’s lenient plea deal in 2008 – she was attacked online and in parts of the media. When she filed a civil lawsuit against Prince Andrew in 2021, settling for a reported £12 million the following year (without admitting liability), she was portrayed as a liar and someone after money. “When you come forward and authorities and the public don’t believe you, and you’re scrutinized, it’s like being hurt all over again,” says Amanda. “A lot of the time, she just had to keep pushing through, telling her truth and hoping it would come to light.” Giuffre would turn off social media and the news, Amanda says, “compartmentalize and say, ‘Right now, I’m just going to put this away, lock it up, and be a mom, laugh, spend hours on the phone talking, and not talk about Epstein.'”
We have to keep the pressure on. This is the moment where we set a precedent worldwide that money and power don’t buy you a different set of laws.
Sky smiles and says, “This is where Virginia’s character came in, because she was always the one to say, ‘If you tell me I can’t do it, watch me.’ Virginia was determined, and that doesn’t mean it didn’t affect her. She was a survivor and a warrior, and she felt she had to tell the story because so many others couldn’t. She had that protector mentality of ‘what’s right is right, and what’s wrong is wrong.’ When she was in the thick of it, she gave it everything. I wish she were here to see how vindicated she is after all the years of work she put in.”
When the Guardian published excerpts from Giuffre’s memoir in October, it added to the growing pressure on Prince Andrew, who gave up his titles days before the book came out. (King Charles officially stripped him of his HRH style and prince title the following month.) Giuffre didn’t live to see the global impact of the release – still partial at that point and heavily redacted – of the Epstein files, the outpouring of support from readers, and the disgrace of Prince Andrew.Drew, among many other consequences. That last one, in particular, “was a victory that Virginia deserved to be here for,” says Amanda. “It was such a moment of vindication for her.” Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, as he is now known, has always denied meeting Giuffre and has suggested the photo of them together might be fake. But Maxwell’s emails to Epstein seem to confirm they did meet. In February, Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office, with allegations that he shared confidential information with Epstein while serving as a trade envoy. He was released and hasn’t been charged, but Thames Valley Police also made it clear they are separately looking into claims that a woman (not Giuffre) was taken to Windsor for “sexual purposes.”
Thames Valley Police are reportedly planning to travel to the US to speak with Sky and Amanda, though the couple won’t comment on that. But Sky says: “We strongly support Thames Valley Police. I think they’re doing a fantastic job, and we need to give them some leeway right now. They’re kind of building the plane while flying it, because investigating a senior royal has never been done before.” Or it has, he adds with a smile, but that was nearly 400 years ago, and it didn’t end well for Charles I.
They’ve previously spoken about their disappointment that the king didn’t meet with them and other survivors during his visit to the US earlier this year (there’s a chance they might come to the UK this year).
When Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested, his brother King Charles said: “Their majesties want to make clear that their thoughts and deepest sympathies have been and will remain with the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse.” Should the British royal family have acted sooner on Mountbatten-Windsor? “That’s the hard part,” says Sky. “How long have they known about these allegations? Was there any kind of cover-up? I don’t know, but I do know this has been going on for a very long time. Epstein was convicted in 2008, and these men and people in power kept being involved in his world. It’s important to keep asking those questions.”
So far, as Wallace points out in her new epilogue to the book, not a single person accused of abuse has been arrested (Maxwell is serving 20 years in prison for sex trafficking; Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial). While preparing to write the epilogue, Wallace typed out everything that had happened since Giuffre’s death; the list ran to seven pages. “So much has happened, and not all of it is because of Virginia’s book,” says Wallace. “It’s partly because of really brave and relentless advocacy on behalf of the other survivor sisters and others. But it’s also because I think people really care about this issue.”
View image in fullscreen
‘Virginia was still herself all the way to the last day,’ Sky says. Photograph: courtesy of the family of Virginia Roberts Giuffre
Less than a month after the book came out, the US passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act with near unanimous support, which led to the release of documents. “They realize their constituents don’t like the idea of wealthy, privileged people abusing less privileged, less powerful people, many of them underage, and getting away with it. Which is what, in the United States, they’re still doing,” says Wallace. The day before we spoke, the US Department of Justice was still refusing to release unredacted documents.
Wallace says it’s “brazen, this administration’s refusal to do what’s right. It’s shameful.” She, Sky, and Amanda want to see the rest of the files released, with the names of the victims redacted and the potential perpetrators named. As it stands, it goes against what was agreed in the act, says Wallace. Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, has said the country should move on from Epstein.Wallace says, “They want it to be over. But who are ‘they,’ and who’s really saying that—is it Trump himself? I don’t know, but Blanche used to be Trump’s personal lawyer. Some people even think they started a war in Iran to change the subject, and guess what—it didn’t work. People across the political spectrum still care about this issue, and they keep caring.”
Sky adds, “Sometimes it feels like you’re pushing a boulder up a giant mountain. Our Department of Justice is supposed to bring justice for the American people, and in this case, for people around the world. But they’re blocking different groups from getting the files—like departments in the UK, and state legislatures in New Mexico and New York.” He says it feels like they’re “actively shielding and covering up for the rich and powerful. I challenge people in the UK, the US, and around the world not to look away. We know crimes were committed in the UK. I think Parliament should open a public inquiry, so if the US won’t keep this moving, at least the UK can bring some justice for survivors. We have to keep the pressure on, because this is the moment to set a precedent that money and power don’t buy you different laws anymore.”
The wealth and glamour around Epstein could be sensationalist. Sky says Giuffre’s book helped humanize his victims, which is why he and Amanda always bring copies when they talk to lawmakers. The mood is shifting, he says. A meeting with James Comer, the chair of the House oversight committee reviewing the federal investigation into Epstein, went well. “We sat in that room with him and other survivors, and really connected with him in a way we didn’t expect. I think he was much more open than he’d ever been.”
Over the four years they worked together, whenever Giuffre called, Wallace made sure to answer. “There was a loneliness to this experience for her.” It was important, Wallace says, “that she could feel she trusted me—not just with her secrets, but emotionally. That I cared about her. And very quickly, I did. She’s very easy to love, very generous, very smart, and very selfless in why she does all this.” It would have been easier for her to stay quiet, Wallace says. “But she was determined to be clear—not just about who hurt her and what it was like to be a young person in that web, but also to tell other victims of sexual exploitation, ‘You’re not alone. I struggle too. I keep struggling.'”
Wallace and Giuffre grew close. She visited Giuffre’s home in Australia twice, spending about a month there total. Did she seem haunted? “When she was with her kids, no,” says Wallace. “But she often talked about a voice inside her that said, ‘The world would be a better place without you.’ That voice comes from being made to feel worthless from a very young age. We just kept trying to get her help and treatment.”
Giuffre insisted that a suicide attempt she made in 2022 be included in the book. “I remember her saying, ‘If I make my life look too rosy—like, yes, I was abused, but then I got married, had kids, and won a few settlements, so now I’m not poor and my life’s great—I’d create more shame in other survivors. And that’s not the truth. I struggle every day.’ She really understood, because of what she’d been through, that she needed to describe herself honestly to truly help other victims.”There are Virginias out there who have had the system work against them for so long.
Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s brother Sky Roberts and his wife, Amanda, at their home in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Photograph: Jo McGowan/The Guardian
She was open, but only up to a point. Giuffre had told Wallace that her husband, Robert, assaulted her in 2015, but she explained it away – they were under pressure, being chased by paparazzi. “Virginia asked me not to include it because of their kids, and because she said, at the time, ‘We’ve really worked hard to move past it.’” When Wallace stayed with the family in October 2024 to finish the book, she says she didn’t notice anything wrong. But “in January, she called me, really upset, and said it [a physical assault] happened again. I stayed on the phone with her for a long time, made sure she was safe, and offered to call her older brother and her mom, which I did.”
Wallace told her they didn’t have to publish the book right away, and that Giuffre needed to focus on her health and family. In March, Giuffre was hospitalized after a car accident. She died the following month. Wallace says journalists in Australia, where Giuffre had lived since the mid-2000s, are looking into her final months and whether she was let down. Her husband had made allegations against her and taken out a restraining order that stopped her from seeing their children; he claimed she had violated the order (which Giuffre denied).
“Being separated from her kids was just…” Wallace pauses. “She couldn’t bear it. All she wanted to talk about in the weeks before she died was, ‘Can you find out how the kids are?’ It was heartbreaking. I think one way people try to heal from their own pain or terrible childhoods is by building a new family of their own that’s hopefully healthier and better. So it wasn’t just that she missed her kids – they were a key part of her being okay, and she was cut off from them.”
Part of the tragedy for me is that she almost made it to the finish line. And then she just couldn’t keep going.
That her husband was portrayed almost as Giuffre’s savior in her memoir bothered Sky and his family. In April last year, weeks before her death, Giuffre told People magazine she had experienced “domestic violence in my marriage.” “Those are the silent battles in survivors’ backyards,” says Sky. “I think that was one of the hardest parts for us – knowing there was another battle.” Giuffre’s siblings didn’t want her book published as it was, and Sky says there was “a lengthy back and forth” with the publishers. Eventually, they agreed on a preface, written by Wallace, acknowledging the alleged domestic abuse.
Giuffre’s family asked the Western Australia police commissioner to open an investigation into her claims of domestic abuse, and last month the police agreed to a review. Sky is sure his sister was failed by the system at every turn, throughout her life. He had been with her in Australia since her accident, briefly overlapping with their older brother, who had flown out a couple of weeks earlier.
Virginia and Sky as teenagers. Sky says: ‘Without her in this, it’s losing the ultimate warrior in this fight.’ Photograph: courtesy of the family of Virginia Roberts Giuffre
“Virginia was still herself right up to the last day,” says Sky. He was the one who found her, he tells me through tears – despite all the conspiracy theories, he wants it known that he’s convinced she took her own life. “I think a survivor’s journey is complicated, and why she made that decision I will never fully understand,” he says when he calms down. “It’s also why we fight so hard – because there don’t need to be more Virginias out there.”Here are people who have had the system working against them for so long.
‘Prince Andrew believed having sex with me was his birthright’: Virginia Giuffre on her abuse at the hands of Epstein, Maxwell and the king’s brother
Read more
When Giuffre died, Wallace was devastated, but not completely surprised. “I knew this was something she carried with her, but I was still shocked and heartbroken. She had always been so resilient, always bounced back. I’m still sad. I wish she were here for so many reasons. She should be getting the emails I’m getting—the ones Sky and Amanda are getting from readers. She should be seeing how the world has responded to her book and everything it set in motion.”
The main reason Giuffre wanted to write her memoir was to help other survivors of sexual abuse. Wallace had told her that writing it would also set her free. She could lay out all the awful details and then just refer people to her book—she wouldn’t have to keep explaining herself. She could focus on advocacy, her children, and her animals. “Part of the tragedy for me is that she almost made it to that finish line,” Wallace says. “And then she just couldn’t keep going.”
This new life—of advocacy work, politics, and talking about his sister’s trauma—isn’t what they expected, Sky says. But he and Amanda are inspired by his sister’s example. “Without her in this fight, we’ve lost the ultimate warrior,” he says. “There’s this pain you’ll always carry, but you use it to keep moving forward.”
Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice by Virginia Roberts Giuffre is published in paperback by Penguin (£10.99), in Australia by Penguin Random House ($26.99), and in the US by Alfred A. Knopf ($37.00). To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be reached for free at 116 123. In the US, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here is a list of FAQs based on the article title and premise ranging from basic to more detailed questions
General Background
Q Who is Virginia Roberts Giuffre
A She was a key figure in the case against Jeffrey Epstein alleging she was trafficked by him and forced to have sex with powerful men including Prince Andrew She became a prominent advocate for survivors of sex trafficking
Q Wait the title says shocking death did Virginia Giuffre recently die
A No This is a hypothetical or reflective article The title refers to the idea of her story ending with her death but she is alive The article is about her brothers fight to continue her advocacy as if her story could not end with her passing
Q Who is her brother and why is he speaking out
A Her brother is not named in the title but he is the author of the reflection He is speaking out to ensure that the fight for justice and the truth about Jeffrey Epsteins network continues even if his sister were no longer here to lead it
Deeper Dive The Brothers Perspective
Q What does the brother mean by we couldnt let her story end there
A He means that Virginias life and advocacy were so impactful that her work message and the pursuit of accountability cannot stop just because she has died He feels a duty to carry the torch in her name
Q Why is the brother still fighting in her name What is he fighting for
A He is fighting for continued legal accountability for Epsteins coconspirators for better protections for trafficking victims and to preserve his sisters legacy as a truthteller He wants to make sure the public does not forget the case
Q What kind of challenges does the brother face in this fight
A He likely faces legal threats public scrutiny emotional grief and the difficulty of proving his sisters claims without her being alive to testify He may also face backlash from those who want to bury the story
Practical Reflective Questions
Q Does the brother have any new evidence or information
