A long-awaited memoir by Virginia Roberts Giuffre — titled Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice — has re-opened one of the most notorious scandals of the 21st century, shedding new light on the alleged abuse network surrounding Jeffrey Epstein and his associates.
Giuffre, who died by suicide in April 2025 at age 41, left behind the manuscript of her story, worked on with journalist Amy Wallace, and stipulated it be published. In the book, she recounts her childhood, the grooming and trafficking she says she suffered, her subsequent escape, and the years she spent advocating for other survivors.
Among the passages is a chilling reflection of her fear during the period of her trafficking: “I thought I might die a sex-slave before I ever saw another morning,” she writes. She describes meeting Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell when she was barely 16 and beginning a cycle of coercion and exploitation that culminated in her being trafficked to powerful men.
Significantly, the memoir revisits her long-publicised allegations against Prince Andrew, Duke of York, claiming that she was trafficked to him on multiple occasions when she was a minor. According to the book, his team attempted to hire “internet trolls” to harass her during the legal battle, and he sought to avoid being served at his residence at Balmoral Castle.
Beyond the headlines, Giuffre’s account also highlights systemic failures: she writes of how legal and media systems dismissed her, how her body became a site of transaction, how powerful men escaped accountability. In one place she reflects: “They told me I was lucky, that this was the job — but I felt locked in a prison I didn’t know I’d entered.”
Her death, earlier this year, adds urgency to the book’s publication — in writing it, she sought not only to chronicle what happened to her but to give voice to thousands of survivors who remain unheard. Campaigners say the memoir will re-energise demands for transparency, for released records of Epstein’s network, and for real structural change.
Critics of the circle around Epstein say the book doesn’t simply recount the crimes of one man, but exposes a culture of impunity in which “when the victims speak, they are blamed, when the powerful are accused, they are shielded.” Giuffre’s story, they argue, is a case study in how abuse thrives under secrecy and celebrity.
Her legacy, as the memoir proposes, will be two-fold: the exposure of wrongdoing, and the building of hope. She writes that although “the darkest nights followed me for years,” she found a reason to fight: “If my silence protects even one girl, then I cannot be silent.”
With Nobody’s Girl, the public now has Giuffre’s full account, a voice that until now had been filtered through court filings, media sound-bites and high-profile settlements. The question now is whether it will galvanise the accountability many say has long been lacking.