[imagesource: Getty Images]
Earlier this year, it was widely reported that Prince Andrew and Virginia Roberts Giuffre settled out of court for a sum of roughly £12 million.
The Duke of York was accused of sexually abusing and raping Giuffre on three separate occasions when she was 17.
He couldn’t cough up the cash himself so mother dearest, also known as Queen Elizabeth II, stepped up to help him out.
Settling out of court on charges like that sure doesn’t help your public image. No wonder that ‘Prince Andrew Is A Sweaty Nonce’ song shot up the charts.
According to new reports, however, Prince Andrew and Giuffre may have actually settled for far less. The original report comes via The Sun, so we proceed with caution, although it’s now been covered by the likes of The Daily Beast:
[The] figure is dramatically lower—between £3 million ($3.6 million) and £5 million ($6 million). A source told the paper: “It was thought, and widely reported, that Virginia got a settlement of £12 million from Andrew, but that’s not right. It was far less than that, as low as £3 million.”
It’s also suggested he may have paid the money himself. with the lower figure “as much money as the disgraced Duke could scrape together quickly to halt her civil lawsuit”.
However, agreeing to a lower figure could well come at a cost:
“No doubt this will have influenced the conditions of the agreement that she was prepared to sign.”
That means the lower figure Giuffre agreed to also left the option open for her to write a tell-all book about her experiences. Giuffre claimed Andrew had raped her three times when she was 17 and being sexually trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein.
There’s a book that you just know will sell.
Move over, Tom Bower’s Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the War Between the Windsors, there could be a new royal bombshell in town.
Reports of the possibly reduced settlement may also shed light on how the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson (with ex-husband Andrew below), has coughed up £5 million for a new pad in London:
One person who is not impressed is Isabelle de Rouvre, the (relatively) unlucky Swiss heiress who sold the Yorks her super-chalet in Verbier for around $20 million. Attentive readers will recall that the Yorks agreed to pay some of the money upfront and some by installments…
De Rouvre [said] that she was owed a total of £6.8 million ($8.2 million) but agreed to a payment of about “half the amount.”
She said: “I understood they didn’t have the money and believed he would be going to prison in America so I thought it best to get what I could,” she said. “I am outraged that I am now told she has spent millions on another property. It is just incredible and the whole story unbelievable. It is a dirty story as far as I am concerned.”
Dirty stories surrounding ‘Randy Andy‘ and Fergie, who once had to borrow $19 000 from Jeffrey Epstein to settle an outstanding debt? Well, I never.
The Queen may be keen to rehabilitate her son’s reputation but it appears Princes Charles and William cannot wait to relegate Andrew’s name to the bottom of the Royal Family’s food chain.
Write that book, Virginia. Spill all the beans.
[source:dbeast]
