My haunting final encounter with Virginia Giuffre: She looked broken, paranoid and afraid, writes DAPHNE BARAK

As Prince Andrew snaked his arm around her bare midriff, the blonde, blue eyed girl smiled brightly for the camera.

But that notorious 2001 photograph of Virginia Guiffre – first revealed by the Mail on Sunday – would return to haunt her for the rest of her life.

A troubled teen who dropped out of high school early, Virginia had been working as the personal masseuse to notorious sex offender and millionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein for two years by the time she was introduced to the Queen’s favourite son.

Following their murky encounter, Epstein’s friend Ghislaine Maxwell – also seen grinning in the same picture – was said to have told Virginia: ‘You did well. He had fun.’

But she was tormented over the years that followed.

As more and more questions were asked about Andrew’s dubious links with Epstein, the glare of the spotlight took a heavy toll on Virginia.

By the time I met her in April 2022 she was a lonely, broken woman – and I was shocked.

She was a loving mother to three children and her long running legal battle with the Prince had finally been settled for an estimated £12 million, so I imagined the worst was behind her.

But the deep scars left from that fight were clearly still raw and painful. 

Virginia Guiffre, who died by suspected suicide on Friday, is seen with Prince Andrew and Ghislaine Maxwell in 2001 

Guiffre, seen outside a Manhattan court in 2019, became the face of allegations against notorious sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and his famous clients 

Barak recalls meeting Giuffre as a ‘lonely, broken woman’ in 2022

And now – for reasons I still don’t understand – she was continuing with another high-profile legal case, this time suing leading American lawyer Alan Dershowitz and alleging that he had been part of the sex ring that had trafficked her.

He denied it vigorously and Virginia later dropped the case, admitting she might have been mistaken about his involvement.

We were staying at the same hotel in Washington DC but Virginia was virtually unrecognisable when I saw her across the lobby.

I remember she was wearing a smart suit for her meeting with lawyers but she walked slowly, her face and body were swollen, and she was obviously in so much pain.

It was clear that she was aware she was being stared at by faces that were far from friendly.

She seemed paranoid and afraid.

I felt immediate sympathy for her and, later, as she headed to the elevator alone, I decided to send her a bottle of champagne and chocolates with a nice note because I felt bad for the woman.

My act of kindness touched Virginia and she invited me to a private meeting in her tiny hotel room later that day.

She drank a couple of bottles of beer, her face was red and she looked bloated.

She was wearing a bathrobe and complained about her neck pain, but it was obvious she had much deeper pain too.

In March, Guiffre claimed she had just four days to live after suffering organ failure when she was hit by a bus, but Australian authorities later described it as a ‘minor crash’ with no injuries reported 

Guiffre had been sex trafficked by notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein in her adolescence 

Prince Andrew has always denied Guiffre’s allegations, but reached a settlement in 2022 for an estimated £12 million 

Although she had settled her case against Prince Andrew, I wondered if her lawyers were pushing her towards more, and maybe the pressure was proving too much for her to handle.

She was upset and confided to me: ‘This hotel is full of my enemies.

‘I am scared to go out of the room.’

I tried to calm her down, and said that was the nature of any legal battle, but I asked how lonely she felt.

‘Very,’ she told me. ‘Sometimes very lonely.’

Virginia added that the stress had affected her health badly, and I could see how frail she had become.

She knew that I was friends with Andrew’s ex-wife Sarah Ferguson who has continued to support him throughout the scandal, and that I had interviewed Ghislaine Maxwell in jail.

Virginia told me she hated Maxwell, and asked loudly: ‘What would your royal friends say if they knew we were meeting?’

I told her flatly that we would soon find out, because I planned to tell them.

That made her smile, as she tried to imagine the conversation we would have about her.

Text message exchange between Barak and Guiffre

Following Guiffre’s first alleged encounter with Prince Andrew, Epstein’s friend Ghislaine Maxwell was said to have told her: ‘You did well. He had fun’ 

Guiffre, seen holding a picture of herself in her youth, said she had been swept up in Epstein’s murky world and became a sex slave for him and his wealthy clients 

We went on to talk about her children, who she said were the most important thing in her life.

She said, ‘Some people say horrible things about me, it hurts me a lot. I am trying not to show it to my children.’

She chatted warmly about the kids, but the entire time I was with Virginia in that room I was affected by how vulnerable she was, and how tired she was from fighting for so long.

She simply said: ‘I didn’t want to come. I was made to.’

Lengthy text message from Guiffre detailed her struggle and hope for the future

And so I was rather surprised that she was not flying straight back to Australia to be with her family the next day – instead she had chosen to stay an extra day or two in that small hotel room, all alone.

The telephone rang but we continued talking, she said it was her husband, but she would call him back later.

I wonder if I witnessed a clue there and then about her troubled home life?

Then Virginia gave me her address in Australia and said: ‘Come to visit me, I have a nice home.’

I could see it was all affecting her wellbeing.

I gave her a long hug and said, ‘In this Epstein saga there were more victims, and there were more sides to the story.’

She looked weak, emotional and – I must say – likable.

I promised to send her something nice for her neck and sent a cheerful purple and yellow scarf.

She texted me a few days later to say that she was wearing it all the time, and after that we started to communicate regularly.

I’ll always remember the poignant message she sent from hospital when she was receiving painful treatment to her spine.

It read: ‘Not good news but smiling to still be alive.’

But by the end it seemed, the agony of her loneliness simply proved too much to bear.

Daphne Barak is a senior TV interviewer 

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