Andrew’s multimillion-dollar payout to Virginia Giuffre sparks family war | Royal | News
The division of Virginia Giuffre’s multimillion-dollar estate has sparked a family feud that is now heading to court. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s sexual abuse accuser committed suicide in April, aged 41, but died “intestate” without a valid will, meaning his estate will be distributed according to legal intestacy rules rather than his expressed wishes.
Before her death, Ms. Giuffre had amassed a fortune through victim compensation funds and civil lawsuit settlements related to nearly three years of abuse she suffered from the summer of 2000 (when she was 16) to 2003 as part of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking and abuse ring. Despite Andrew continuing to deny any wrongdoing, he received an estimated $12 million (£9 million) payment from the former Duke of York in 2022 to settle the claim. She also received $500,000 (£380,000) from Epstein in 2009 when she settled sex trafficking and sexual abuse allegations against him. But Ms. Giuffre’s family will now go to court to determine who gets what.
Under Australian law, where Ms. Giuffre is both a citizen and where she lived after the abuse, her husband, Robert Giuffre, is entitled to up to a third of her inheritance, even though he filed for divorce two months before her death. But around the time the trial began, Ms. Giuffre is said to have sent an email to her lawyer saying she did not want him to receive any of her money.
As a result, her two half-brothers, Sky Roberts and Danny Wilson, hired a lawyer to contest her right to funds and receive a large portion of the inheritance, according to her aunt, Kimberley Roberts.
“We don’t believe they have the right to do so,” he said. Telegram. “The property should be left only to their children.”
In June, it was revealed that Ms Giuffre’s two eldest children, Christian, 19, and Noah, 18, who live with their father, had successfully petitioned the court to be appointed as administrators of the estate.
The brothers are also said to want to assume control of Ms. Giuffre’s charity, Speak Out, Act, Reclaim; in contrast Andrew’s $3m (£2.3m) settlement has been ring-fenced. However, the funds are still held in an escrow account managed by a third party. Other members of Ms. Giuffre’s family oppose the half-siblings’ involvement and the fact that the charity is run by experts in the charity sector.
Concerns have also been raised about how Ms. Giuffre died. Mr Roberts “wants the whole family to say without question that it was suicide”, according to a source.
Ms Giuffre also owned four properties, including Ocean Reef, a six-bedroom seaside house in Perth and a farm in the nearby town of Neergabby, where she died.
