I Felt Dirty & Ashamed

The woman who claims she was abused by Prince Andrew reveals why she’s telling her story

- Jane Vorster

TO MOST of the world she’s “the girl in the photograph”. To Prince Andrew she was so inconsequential he couldn’t even recall ever having posed for the incriminating picture with his arm around her bare midriff, much less remember her name – or so he claims.

Back in 2001, Miami-born Virginia Roberts was a naive teen who couldn’t speak up for herself. But now she’s a grown woman of 35 and she wants everyone to know what happened that night when she was pictured with the prince.

In a recent interview with British TV news show Panorama that the royal family was no doubt dreading, Virginia, elaborated on her claims that at age 17 she was trafficked to London by subsequently convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and forced to have sex with Andrew.

The 59-year-old British prince had already had his turn to talk about that night in his own TV interview – a train smash of a show that brought him global disgrace and resulted in him being stripped of his royal duties (YOU, 5 December).

Virginia, on the other hand, was so candid in her emotional interview she earned widespread praise for her bravery at being willing to take on the towering institution of the monarchy.

In excruciating detail, she told how after she was introduced to Andrew, her excitement turned to disgust as she danced with him at the Tramp nightclub in London. “He was a hideous dancer and he was sweating profusely all over me. I just remember like, ugh, I need a shower. It was disgusting.”

She felt even more repulsed when it became clear she was expected to have sex with the prince.

“It didn’t last long, the whole entire procedure. It was disgusting,” she says of the sexual encounter.

Afterward, Andrew just got up, said “Thanks” and walked out, she says.

“I sat there in bed just horrified and ashamed, and felt dirty.”