Virginia Giuffre, the most prominent victim of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, died by suicide on Thursday, just weeks after she claimed that she had "four days to live" in a series of troubling Instagram posts.
"It is with utterly broken hearts that we announce that Virginia passed away last night at her farm in Western Australia. She lost her life to suicide, after being a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking. Virginia was a fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking. She was the light that lifted so many survivors," the 41-year-old's family said in a statement to NBC News.
Tragic End
The statement continued, "Despite all the adversity she faced in her life, she shone so bright. She will be missed beyond measure. The light of her life were her children Christian, Noah, and Emily. It was when she held her newborn daughter in her arms that Virginia realized she had to fight back against those who had abused her and so many others."
Giuffre gained attention in 2015 when she filed a lawsuit against billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein, claiming she was sex trafficked at the age of 16 after being recruited by his former partner and convicted madam, Ghislaine Maxwell, while working as a locker room attendant at President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort.
The mother of three also accused disgraced Prince Andrew of forcing her into having sex on three separate occasions when she was 17 — including incidents at Epstein's private island, Little St. James, in New Mexico, and at Maxwell's home in London, where the infamous photo of her with King Charles' brother was taken.
Giuffre allegations went on to become the biggest scandal to hit the royal family in decades. Although Prince Andrew has repeatedly denied the claims, he reached an out-of-court settlement with Giuffre in 2022, paying a whopping $12 million.
Suicide after Disturbing Instagram Posts
Giuffre suffered abuse by a family friend when she was a child, which set her on a troubled path that eventually left her homeless as a teenager, according to NBC News. In recent years, Giuffre had been living in Australia with her young family.
Just last month, she made headlines after sharing a photo of her bruised face on social media, claiming she had been hit by a bus and only had "four days to live."
"This has been the worst start to a new year," she wrote in the caption of the disturbing Instagram post.
"I'm ready to go, just not until I see my babies one last time, but you know what they say about wishes," Giuffre's caption read.
Giuffre later alleged that she was physically abused by her husband, Robert Giuffre, for years. The two recently ended their 22-year marriage.
According to The Independent, Robert Giuffre also violated a restraining order that Virginia had filed against him in their hometown of Perth.
As part of her explosive allegations related to Epstein, Giuffre said that she had seen former President Bill Clinton on Epstein's private Caribbean island on two occasions — an allegation Clinton has repeatedly denied.
Epstein died by suicide in his prison cell in Manhattan in 2019 while he was awaiting trial for sex trafficking charges. In 2022, Maxwell received a 20-year prison sentence on federal sex trafficking charges. She is currently set to be released on July 17, 2037 — shortly before her 76th birthday.
