Convicted sex-trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell undermined Prince Andrew’s assertions that he was never really that close to the convicted sex-trafficker, insisting in a bombshell jailhouse interview that he was actually a “dear friend.”
Speaking to Britain’s Mail on Sunday, the imprisoned socialite who helped Jeffrey Epstein procure girls said she has pity for Andrew: “I feel so bad for him.”
Andrew’s lawyers had argued in a legal filing back in January that a sexual assault lawsuit filed against him by Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre should be dismissed because her claim that Maxwell and Prince Andrew were close friends was wrong. Giuffre had alleged that Maxwell helped Jeffrey Epstein groom her as part of their sex trafficking ring.
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The prince always denied Giuffre's allegation of sexual assault, but he was stripped of his military titles in the ensuing fallout. He later settled out of court with Giuffre.
Told that Andrew had apparently sought to distance himself from her, Maxwell seemed to suggest that his claim had been a strategic, scandal-dodging maneuver.
“Yes, I follow what is happening to him. He is paying such a price for the association [with Jeffrey Epstein]. I consider him a dear friend… I care about him,” she said.
But she went on to say: “I accept that this friendship could not survive my conviction.”
She also declined to confirm or deny reports that she and Prince Andrew had been an item.
“I have read and seen and heard and had reported to me so many monstrous inaccuracies that I can’t start to pick apart all of them. If I pick apart one and then don’t address all the others, it’s going to say, ‘Well, she said no to this, what about all those others?’ I’m not going to discuss anything of that nature until after the appeal.”
