Ghislaine Maxwell has repeated claims that a photograph showing Prince Andrew with his arm around Virginia Giuffre is “fake”.
The 61-year-old was speaking from a Florida prison, where she is serving a 20-year sentence after being found guilty of luring young girls to massage rooms for disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein to molest between 1994 and 2004.
The disgraced British socialite has previously cast doubt on the authenticity of the photo, said to be taken inside her Mayfair home, and showing her smiling in the background.
Clips released ahead of an interview to be broadcast on TalkTV show her saying: “It’s a fake. I don’t believe it’s real for a second, in fact I’m sure it’s not.”
She goes on: “Well, there’s never been an original and further there’s no photograph, and I’ve only ever seen a photocopy of it.”
Prince Andrew has also questioned the authenticity of the image of him with Ms Giuffre and has said he’s “not one to hug” or “display affection” in public.
Ms Giuffre – formerly known as Virginia Roberts – used the image as evidence to support her allegations against the prince before the case was settled outside of court.
The duke – who paid millions to settle the civil sexual assault case – is now looking into ways to overturn the settlement, according to reports in The Sun on Sunday and Mail on Sunday.
He denies all claims and says he has never met Ms Giuffre.
Ms Giuffre sued the duke for allegedly sexually assaulting her when she was 17 after she was trafficked by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the former partner of Maxwell.
Epstein was found dead in his cell at a federal jail in Manhattan in August 2019 while he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide.
Read more:
How girls were lured to be abused by Jeffrey Epstein
‘Partners in Crime’: The intimate picture of Maxwell and Epstein
In an interview with BBC Newsnight in 2019, Andrew said while he recognises himself in the picture, he claimed it is not possible to prove whether the image had been faked.
He also said the picture could not have been taken in London, as he was wearing his “travelling clothes”.
Ms Giuffre told BBC Panorama the photo was “authentic” and said she gave the original to the FBI in 2011.
Maxwell originally cast doubt on the authenticity of the photo in a deposition.
She said the surroundings in the photo looked “familiar”, but also said: “We can’t really establish the photograph and all that”, adding: “I don’t know if that’s true, if that’s a real picture or not.”