Virginia married Robert Giuffre in 2002 – just 10 days after they first met – and they went on to have three children together before their split, shortly before her death
There was a time when Virginia Giuffre saw husband Robert Giuffre as her saviour, the man who had finally “rescued” her from “Epstein’s clutches”.
But in the months before her death, she voiced some serious concerns over her partner – and revealed her fears in the wake of their split in 2024 after 22 years of marriage.
Virginia and Robert married in 2002 and had three children together. He was steadfastly by her side when she went public with her allegations against paedophile Epstein and his associates, including Ghislaine Maxwell.
But their marriage later unraveled and they separated around 2023 – 2024. Things turned nasty quickly.
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Virginia alleged Robert was violent and abusive and claimed he had become “emotionally and physically controlling”.
Photographs shared by Virginia’s family, taken after an alleged incident of domestic violence in January, appeared to show her with a black eye and bruising on her face and arms. Robert denied he attacked Virginia, claiming she hit him during an argument.
Virginia lost custody of her children and was subject to a restraining order granted to Robert that prevented her from contact with her children. Her family said her mental and physical health quickly deteriorated.
On March 30 Virginia shared a photo on her Instagram page, showing her bruised and bloodied after a car crash outside her home in Australia. “They’ve given me four days to live,” she wrote of her prognosis. “I’m ready to go.”
Three weeks later, on April 25, Virginia took her own life, alone on a ranch in remote scrubland north of Perth, aged 41.
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At the time of her death, she was in the middle of divorce proceedings with Robert. Virginia had built up a multimillion-dollar estate from victim compensation funds and civil lawsuit settlements resulting from abuse by Jeffrey Epstein and his high-profile friends.
It was revealed that Virginia had died intestate, meaning her husband could be entitled to as much as a third of her estate under Australian law.
But in a diary she kept from January until her death, Virginia expressed concerns that Robert would drink and gamble away money she wanted Christian, 19, Noah, 18, and Emily, 15, to one day inherit.
She wrote: “I do not want Robert blowing my children’s $$ on himself.”
Elsewhere in the diary, which was shared by her family, Virginia claimed that Robert had grown uncomfortable with the publicity her case against Epstein had attracted, and that his behaviour “became more controlling”, adding: “The stronger I became, the scarier he became.”
Sky Roberts and Danny Wilson, Virginia’s brothers in the US, hired a lawyer in Australia to file a challenge to Robert’s right to the estate, claiming it was their sister’s stated wish that he “not receive a dime”.
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When contacted for comment at the time, Robert’s attorney said that “the passing of the wife of Robert Giuffre and mother of their children is tragic”. But his counsel was unable to comment on specific allegations of abuse due to live proceedings in the Western Australia courts.
It was through her husband that Virginia finally escaped paedophile Epstein after years of abuse. In 2002 aged 19, as part of her escape plan, she asked the billionaire to pay her training as a message therapist and he agreed, flying her to an international training school in Thailand – but only on the condition that she would meet a young Thai girl there and bring her back to the US.
There she met Robert, an Australian martial arts trainer, and the pair married after 10 days. When she called Epstein to tell him she would not be returning as agreed, he replied “have a nice life” and hung up the phone.
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The newly-married couple returned to live a new life in Australia, and Virginia tried to forget her ordeal, until 2007 when the FBI contacted her as part of their investigation into the American financier.
She initially refused to cooperate, later saying she was “scared to death. I just didn’t want my family harmed”. It was after the birth of her third child in 2010 that she took the brave step of coming forward publicly, speaking about her experiences of sexual abuse and trafficking, and campaigning for other victims.
Supported by her husband, she described allegedly being trafficked to Prince Andrew at least three times when she was 17 in bombshell allegations which made headlines around the world. Prince Andrew has repeatedly denied having sex with Ms Guiffre.
Her testimony also led to the conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell, who was sentenced to 20 years in jail in 2022 for recruiting and trafficking underaged girls for the disgraced billionaire.