Prince Andrew Has Paid Settlement to Virginia Giuffre, Her Lawyer Says

A lawsuit accusing Prince Andrew, the disgraced second son of Queen Elizabeth II and a former friend of the notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, of raping Virginia Giuffre when she was a teenager was dismissed by a federal judge on Tuesday, following a request from both parties.

Andrew, 62, paid Ms. Giuffre an undisclosed sum to settle the suit, her lawyer said on Tuesday. Each party will pay for its own costs and fees, according to documents filed on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

David Boies, a lawyer for Ms. Giuffre, said in a statement on Tuesday that he was pleased the settlement had been completed.

“This is an important step, but it should not be the last step in holding Jeffrey Epstein’s enablers and participants to account,” he said.

A lawyer for Andrew did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

In a joint statement from Andrew and Ms. Giuffre last month, Andrew said he planned to make a “substantial donation” to Ms. Giuffre’s charity, which helps survivors of sex trafficking.

Andrew has repeatedly denied Ms. Giuffre’s accusations. In the statement last month, he said that he “never intended to malign Ms. Giuffre’s character” and that he accepted “that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks.” He also said he regretted his association with Mr. Epstein.

The stipulation for dismissal, which was signed by Judge Lewis A. Kaplan on Tuesday, resolved a lawsuit filed by Ms. Giuffre last year against Andrew, accusing him of sexually abusing her when she was 17, according to the complaint.

After the lawsuit was filed, Andrew was forced to relinquish his military titles and royal charities, lost his use of the title His Royal Highness and was “not to undertake any public duties,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement in January.

In the lawsuit, Ms. Giuffre also claimed that Andrew, Mr. Epstein and Mr. Epstein’s longtime companion, Ghislaine Maxwell, forced her to have sexual intercourse with Andrew at Ms. Maxwell’s home in London. Ms. Giuffre said in the lawsuit that she feared disobeying them because of their “powerful connections, wealth and authority.”

In the complaint, Ms. Giuffre claimed that she had been recruited to provide massages for Mr. Epstein and was later required to be on call for him for sexual purposes.

Mr. Epstein was awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges when he hanged himself in August 2019 in his jail cell in New York. Ms. Maxwell, 60, was convicted late last year of sex trafficking and other counts.