Virginia Giuffre. Photo:
Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg via Getty
- In the months before Giuffre died by suicide at age 41, her sister-in-law had long talks with her “trying to encourage her,” she tells PEOPLE
- The prominent accuser of the late financier Jeffrey Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell was found dead on her farm just outside Perth, Australia, on April 24, her family said
- Giuffre was dealing with serious personal issues in the months before she died, her family says
The months before Virginia Giuffre died by suicide on April 24 at age 41 were full of mental and physical pain, her family members tell PEOPLE.
Known as one of the most outspoken accusers of convicted sex offenders Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, Giuffre’s turbulent personal life in the last few months only added to the simmering anguish she had suffered for most of her life.
“Everything just accrues on top of one another,” her sister-in-law, Amanda Roberts, told PEOPLE in an exclusive interview on Saturday, April 26.
In the end, Roberts says, the weight of all of her burdens “was too much to carry.”
After being sexually abused at age 7 by a family friend, Giuffre’s younger years were spent as a runaway and in and out of foster homes.
At age 16, while working as a locker room attendant at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., where her father was a maintenance manager, she met socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, who she said invited her to work for her associate, the wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein, as a masseuse.
After being lured into their sordid world, Giuffre said she was sexually abused by Epstein for several years. During that time, she said was recruited to the pair’s notorious sex-trafficking ring, where she alleged she was passed around to rich and powerful men including Prince Andrew. (Andrew has denied any wrongdoing.)
She was able to extract herself from that life by moving to Australia with future husband Robert Giuffre, whom she met in 2002 while training to become a masseuse in Thailand for Epstein.
Virginia Giuffre and her husband, Robert Giuffre. Virginia Roberts/Instagram
After marrying Robert and having three children with him, Giuffre came forward in 2010 and publicly accused the Epstein and Maxwell of recruiting her at 16 to join their sex-trafficking ring. For years afterward, she dealt with the fallout.
Now her family is dealing with the cold reality of her death by suicide at her farm outside Perth, Australia, where she has lived for the last several years.
“We’re just broken,” Amanda said through tears. “This can’t be it.”
In the last few months of Giuffre’s life, her family was there for her, says Amanda.
Her brother Danny Wilson, then Sky, went to stay with Giuffre when she was hospitalized in late March after the car she was riding in was hit by a bus.
“Over the last couple of months, I had some very, very, very deep conversations with her and was trying to encourage her,” says Amanda.
Giuffre was experiencing a great deal of turmoil in her personal life when she died, Amanda and Skytold PEOPLE in an exclusive interview on April 3. In 2023, they said Giuffre separated from Robert, whom she accused of allegedly abusing her during their marriage.
In February, Robert filed a temporary family restraining order against Giuffre, which gave him primary custody of their children and prohibited her from contacting them, Sky said.
Sky and Amanda claimed he filed it after beating Giuffre severely in January. She allegedly violated it on Feb. 2 by calling him on the phone. She was scheduled to appear in court about the matter in June.
Robert’s attorney did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment but told PEOPLE previously in an email, “Unfortunately, as the issues you raise are before the Courts in Australia both he and anyone associated with the case including Ms Giuffre or her agents are prohibited from discussing or utilising the media. Therefore, there is no comment.”
As her family grieves, they are remembering Giuffre for her “incredible courage” by being one of the first victims to publicly come forward about Epstein and Maxwell.
Convicted in 2008 of soliciting minors for prostitution in Florida, Epstein died by suicide in 2019 in his jail cell at age 66 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
Maxwell, 63, is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for a 2021 child sex trafficking conviction in connection to Epstein.
In 2021, Giuffre sued Prince Andrew in New York. The two reached an out-of-court settlement in February 2022 of an undisclosed amount.
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To honor Giuffre’s memory, the family will continue the work of Speak Out, Act, Reclaim (SOAR), the non-profit she founded to support sexual assault survivors.
“She wished for all survivors to get justice,” says Amanda. “That is who she was.”
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 or go to 988lifeline.org.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.
If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
