Virginia Giuffre, the most prominent victim of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse, has died by apparent suicide, her family announced Friday.
“It is with utterly broken hearts that we announce that Virginia passed away last night at her farm in Western Australia,” her family said in a statement to NBC News. “She lost her life to suicide, after being a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking.”
Giuffre, who was 41, leaves behind a husband and three children. The family lived in Australia.
Giuffre was involved in several legal actions targeting Epstein.
She filed a defamation lawsuit against Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, whom she accused of grooming her for Epstein’s abuse when she was a 16-year-old spa attendant at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach (Trump reportedly later banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago in 2007 for harassing another member’s teenage daughter). Giuffre said the sexual abuse she suffered included lessons on Epstein’s oral sex preferences.
Giuffre also sued Prince Andrew, claiming the British royal sexually abused her when she was 17. The prince has denied the accusations.
Last month, Giuffre sparked alarm when she posted a photo on Instagram of herself in a hospital bed, saying doctors had told her she had “four days to live” after a car crash with a school bus. However, she was discharged nearly a week later.
Giuffre was one of the first people to call for criminal charges against Epstein, and other Epstein victims credited her with giving them the courage to speak out.
“Virginia was a fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking. She was the light that lifted so many survivors,” the statement said. “In the end, the toll of abuse is so heavy that it became unbearable for Virginia to handle its weight.”
Epstein was found dead at 66 in what was ruled a suicide in his Manhattan jail cell in August 2019. He was awaiting trial after being accused of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls.
The lurid details of his alleged sex ring include accusations that he procured underage girls for prominent men on his private island in the Virgin Islands, Little St. James.
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