How troubled Giuffre's life seemed to unravel in public

California-born Virginia Giuffre, a victim of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, said little in the years since she settled a civil lawsuit with Prince Andrew.

- ANGELA MOLLARD

While Andrew, a friend of Epstein, rejected any wrongdoing and continues to deny claims he sexually assaulted her when she was 17, the settlement he paid her was reportedly around £12m. In a joint statement with Giuffre released at the time, he said he regretted his association with Epstein and commended “the bravery of Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others”.

Yet three years on from the settlement, Giuffre was back in the headlines last month after the mother of three, aged 41, posted a distressing image to Instagram showing her bruised and battered face, saying she had just four days to live after going into renal failure following a car crash.

Writing about the crash, Giuffre said: “This year has been the worst start to a new year, I won’t bore anyone with the details, but I think it important to note that when a school bus driver comes at you driving 110km as we were slowing for a turn that no matter what your car is made of it might as well be a tin can. I’ve gone into kidney renal failure, they’ve given me four days to live, transferring me to a specialist hospital in urology. I’m ready to go, just not until I see my babies one last time, but you know what they say about wishes.”

Days after the post on 30 March, via a family spokesperson, she said that the picture and caption had been mistakenly posted to her public Instagram and were only meant to be on her private Facebook page. Earlier today, her family revealed that she had died by suicide. “It is with utterly broken hearts that we announce that Virginia passed away last night at her farm in Western Australia,” Giuffre’s family said in a statement. “She lost her life to suicide, after being a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking.