Earlier this week Lady Victoria Hervey sensationally repeated claims that the infamous photo of Prince Andrew and Virginia Giuffre was faked.
Now the 44-year-old socialite and former ‘It Girl’, who is the daughter of the 6th Marquess of Bristol, has doubled down by identifying the set of images she says were used to create the doctored photo.
The infamous snap with the Duke of York, which was reportedly taken in March 2001 at Ghislaine Maxwell’s London apartment, has been reproduced countless times around the world after Ms Giuffre – known before her marriage as Virginia Roberts – shared it with The Mail on Sunday in February 2011.
But Lady Victoria said it has been pieced together using a photo taken at Naomi Campbell’s birthday party on board a yacht in St Tropez in May 2001, in which Virginia can be seen wearing the same white tank top with colourful patterned jeans.
The logical explanation is, of course, that she was wearing the same outfit on both occasions.
What’s more, Lady Victoria does not have a copy of the exact Virginia photo from St Tropez which she claims was used to fake the Prince Andrew image, and it has never been seen publicly. However, she did share a bizarre painted reproduction of the alleged image to Instagram earlier this week.
Lady Victoria added to her baffling claims by saying that an ‘Irish guy’ who was dating one of Epstein’s victims in 2001 and also attended the boat party was used as a ‘body double’ for Prince Andrew in the ‘fake’ image.
In an exclusive interview, Lady Victoria told FEMAIL she has spoken to several victims of Jeffrey Epstein, who said they believe the image was edited by Virginia and Maria Farmer, another victim who worked as an ‘artist-in-residence’ for Epstein.
The infamous snap with the Duke of York, which was reportedly taken in March 2001 at Ghislaine Maxwell’s London apartment, shows Virginia Giuffre, then aged 17 and known as Virginia Roberts, in a white tank top and colourful trousers
Lady Victoria Hervey said that an image taken at Naomi Campbell’s birthday in 2001 in St Tropez was used to ‘fake’ the Prince Andrew photo, pointing out that Virginia is wearing the same outfit in both (pictured)
Lady Victoria claimed a photograph of this unnamed man, who she said is Irish and was dating one of Epstein’s victims at the time, was used as a body double for Prince Andrew
Lady Victoria claimed the image of Virginia was taken at the birthday boat party. The image has never been seen publicly but another of Epstein’s victims has allegedly painted an image of what the original photograph would have looked like (pictured)
She said other victims had ‘seen’ Virginia and Maria photoshopping the image, before being ‘bullied and silenced’ by Virginia.
Lady Victoria said the pair had been in ‘cahoots’ for 20 years because they ‘wanted to bring down the monarchy using Prince Andrew’, adding that this was Epstein’s intention too.
‘I know this sounds pretty wild – Epstein told one survivor that he basically wanted to bring down the monarchy,’ she said.
Meanwhile the socialite said she had passed on all of her findings to a member of Prince Andrew’s legal team, adding: ‘She’s got everything, she’s got it all. She’s got recordings and screenshots and everything.’
Virginia claims she was trafficked by Epstein and Maxwell and forced to have sex with the royal on three occasions when she was 17, claims Prince Andrew strenuously denies.
Virginia has previously described in legal documents how she attended the party in St Tropez to celebrate Miss Campbell’s 31st birthday in 2001.
The 44-year-old socialite and former ‘It Girl’, who is the daughter of the 6th Marquess of Bristol, has spoken out and repeated claims made by the Duke in his disastrous Newsnight interview that the image may have been doctored
Images from the party show Virginia in an off-white, strappy top which exposed her midriff and distinctive, multi-coloured trousers.
Meanwhile photographs also show Ghislaine from the night of the party wearing a blue knitted jumper with a knitted white and sequin skirt.
Lady Victoria said a photograph taken at the party shows Virginia leaning against the boat and holding her coat in one hand, and this is the image that was used to fake the photo with Prince Andrew.
She believes one of the clearest signs that it has been edited is Virginia’s hand, and she said it looks sightly odd because she was actualy leaning against the side of the boat in the original photo
However, she does not have a copy of the alleged picture and it has never been seen publicly.
However, Lady Victoria went on to claim that an Epstein victim who ‘saw’ the alleged photo and witnessed it being edited by Virginia and Maria has recreated it.
She said: ‘One of the girls is an artist and she drew a painting of the original photograph of Virginia on the boat holding her coat.’
It was this image that Lady Victoria shared to social media earlier this week, causing a stir with her bizarre claims.
Another victim of Epstein, Maria was the ‘artist-in-residence’ and receptionist at Epstein’s New York office in 1995 after graduating from the New York Academy of Arts and handpicked by Epstein to work for him, who was also a college donor.
She was then abused by Epstein and Maxwell on his mentor, billionaire Les Wexner’s estate in Ohio, and also ogled at by President Donald Trump, whom she claims visited Epstein at least three times while she worked there.
Lady Victoria said she was told be Epstein survivors that Ghislaine had taught Maria and Virginia how to photoshop images.
She said the victims then saw the duo editing the infamous photograph of the Duke with Virginia using images from the birthday party.
She said: ‘The girls were there, I guess they all lived together you know.
Virginia has previously described in legal documents how she attended the party in St Tropez to celebrate Miss Campbell’s 31st birthday in 2001 (pictured, the party)
Meanwhile Lady Victoria said the women had edited Ghislaine’s outfit to change the colour of her knitted top and to remove the sleeves (pictured, her outfit the night of the party)
Brazilian footballer Ronaldo is also shown (centre left) and Irish businessman Eddie Jordan (left)
‘Everyone was aware – four or five of the survivors know that they [Maria and Virginia] did it and saw it.’
She said while the duo took a photograph of Ghislaine’s empty home, editing in the image of Victoria holding her coat on the boat.
Lady Victoria claimed they then edited Ghislaine into the image, altering her outfit by changing the colour of her top and removing the sleeves.
Meanwhile she said Maria and Virginia used the body of an Irish man who had been dating one of the other victims at the time to act as a double for Prince Andrew.
Attendees at Naomi’s birthday party included Flavio Briatore (pictured) as well as Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine
Brazilian footballer Ronaldo was among the celebrities to attend the lavish boat party in May 2001 (pictured)
In legal papers, Virginia has previously described how she ‘met Naomi Campbell at a birthday party of hers on a yacht in the South of France’ (pictured left and right, Naomi during the 2001 party)
She said the unnamed Irish man was in a relationship with one of Epstein’s victims at the time, and he was at the boat party as well.
However she said she does not know if the image was taken at the boat party, or whether the unnamed Irish man was aware of the plot by Virginia.
Having edited the man’s body into the photograph with Virginia and Ghislaine, she then said Maria and Virginia had edited Prince Andrew’s face onto his.
She pointed to both Virginia and Andrew’s hands as evidence the image had been doctored, adding: ‘Her hand and his hand looked so freaking weird.’
She continued: ‘They learnt how to do all of this editing by Ghislaine – I don’t know if Ghislaine and Jeffrey were in on the fake photo.’
Meanwhile Lady Victoria also said there had ‘never been a physical photo of that shot, it’s all digital’ and accused Virginia of telling ‘different stories’ about whether there was a copy.
When asked about why Virginia and Maria might have been motivated to edit the photograph, Lady Victoria referred to another message from a survivor.
She said: ‘Another girl sent [me] this: “I’m the one that saw Virginia had the photo of Andrew photoshopped by Maria.
‘They were conspiring to bring the monarchy down using Andrew.”
Lady Victoria did not reveal which year the photograph had been edited in.
Virginia gave it to The Mail on Sunday in 2011, when she was living a quiet life with her family on Australia’s Central Coast.
She had been traced by journalist Sharon Churcher, who was investigating reports that the FBI was planning to reopen an investigation into the sexual exploitation of teenagers by Epstein.
At first she was reluctant to talk, not least because she harboured fears that Epstein might try to kill her.
Speaking to the Mail on Sunday at the time, she produced the picture of Andrew from a white envelope containing a collection of photos chronicling her teenage years and travels with Epstein to New Mexico and Paris.
She explained that the picture with Andrew was taken at Ms Maxwell’s home after a visit to Tramp nightclub – a claim the Duke disputes.
She told Churcher at the meeting that she had sex with Andrew three times while a teenager, but for legal reasons the MoS could not publish her claims, which the Duke denies.
Lady Victoria claims she began reaching out to victims, including a survivor in Canada and one in Florida, to discuss the photograph after doing several media interviews following Ghislaine’s sentencing.
She said: ‘The girls have been talking to me, I’m a woman, I knew they would feel comfortable.
‘I said to them, “I just want to get the truth out, I just want to get the real story out there because it hasn’t got there yet”.
‘She’s been spilling all the beans. They’ve been telling me exactly how they’ve been plotting this, how they witnessed Maria and Virginia making that photo, how one of the girls was dating the body double.’
She said Maria and Virginia have been ‘in cahoots’ for two decades, adding: ‘These girls were so bullied by Virginia and silenced by her.’
Lady Victoria added: ‘[The victims] are also telling me Virginia has been cutting a deal with the other abusers, she’s bringing down Andrew and they’re paying her off.’
Lady Victoria shared snaps taken of Virginia and Ghislaine at the boat party were then edited into a photograph of Ghislaine’s house on her Instagram page (pictured)
Lady Victoria posted the accusations on her Instagram stories yesterday and suggested the image actually showed an Irish man as a body double for Prince Andrew
‘They’ve all been really scared because Virginia has been silencing them. She wanted to control the storyline and [told them] they should go with her story and then she will pay them out.’
She said the other victims told her they feel it is ‘crazy’ Virginia is ‘going after the Duke’ when there are ‘other men out there who did rape and abuse her.’
She added: ‘[One victim] wrote me “[Virginia] she’s just punishing the prince that didn’t marry her?’
Lady Victoria confessed she is unsure whether Virginia is ‘finishing off the job’ for Epstein, adding: ‘Her motivation in this is money and taking down the royal family as well.’
Lady Victoria Hervey and Prince Andrew pictured in 2002 at a party in London to celebrate Chinese New Year
Lady Victoria Hervey and Ghislaine Maxwell pictured in Hollywood on February 25, 2004
In his TV interview in 2019, Andrew hinted that the hand around her waist may not be his.
Prince Andrew told BBC Newsnight: ‘You can’t prove whether or not that photograph is faked because it’s a photograph of a photograph of a photograph.’
‘It’s very difficult to be able to prove it but I don’t remember that photograph being taken…
‘That’s me but whether that’s my hand…I have simply no recollection of the photograph ever being taken.’
The prince also said he thought he had never been upstairs in his friend Ghislaine Maxwell’s house, where the photo appears to have been taken.
But Virginia told BBC Panorama in 2019 that the photo is genuine and she gave the original to the FBI in 2011.
In his TV interview in 2019, Andrew hinted that the hand around her waist may not be his, and said ‘it’s very difficult to prove’ the photograph was ‘faked’
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