The Prince of Wales’ absence from a recent royal event wasn’t just a scheduling conflict — it may signal deeper tensions behind palace doors. Here’s what we know.
Royal commentator Charlotte Griffiths stated that Prince William is deliberately steering clear of Prince Andrew, whom she described as a persistent issue for the royal family, with controversies that continue to reappear frequently.
Speaking to GB News on April 28, 2025, Griffiths addressed the renewed attention on the Duke of York following the death of Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide at 41. Giuffre had previously accused Prince Andrew of sexual assault when she was a minor.
Griffiths explained that the Prince of Wales did not attend the recent Easter service, where Andrew appeared publicly.
She said, “Andrew popped up, didn’t he, at the Easter service. Prince William was notably absent, because William won’t be seen anywhere near his uncle. He knows that Andrew is an unsolvable problem, and his issues resurface with alarming regularity. It’s a problem that simply won’t go away. Yet another chapter has unfolded, sadly, with the news that Virginia Giuffre has died by suicide.”
She questioned Andrew’s public presence at Easter, given his absence from other royal events. “Given that Andrew wasn’t even allowed to attend the Sandringham Christmas service, I found it very surprising that he thought he could show up at Easter,” she said.
“What happens is that, every now and then, Andrew gets it into his head that he can find a way back, even though the signals are very, very clear that he can’t. In 2021, he even planned a return. That was only about a year after the Newsnight interview. So, really, the fullness of time hasn’t taught him anything about his exile,” divulged Griffiths.
In response to Giuffre’s death, an emergency meeting was held at Buckingham Palace on Friday, April 26. King Charles, Prince William, senior advisors, legal counsel, and public relations staff met to discuss the situation privately.
According to a Palace source, there was a difference of opinion during the meeting. “William thinks they need to show humanity,” the source said. “Charles just wants it to disappear.”
Prince Andrew’s royal roles were revoked following his association with convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. The latest events have renewed scrutiny over his position and the challenges he presents to the monarchy.
The royal family now faces ongoing pressure as it navigates public response, with Prince William continuing to keep his distance.
Amid this mounting pressure, the focus has turned to Giuffre — the woman at the center of the allegations — whose tragic death has brought a renewed sense of gravity to the unfolding royal crisis.
Her death was confirmed by her family and authorities, who said she died by suicide at her home in Neergabby, Australia.
Emergency services responded to a call on Friday night (April 25, 2025) and found Giuffre unresponsive. Despite attempts to save her, she was declared dead at the scene.
Western Australia Police said that “early indications is the death is not suspicious, [sic]” and major crime detectives are currently investigating.
Her family described her as someone who had survived a lifetime of abuse and sex trafficking, calling her a fierce warrior who became a light for many survivors.
They shared that it was when Giuffre held her newborn daughter for the first time that she found the strength to fight back against those who had harmed her.
Despite all the adversity she faced, they said, she continued to shine brightly, although the weight of her trauma eventually became too much to bear. They expressed their belief that she is now “with the angels.” Giuffre rose to prominence after alleging that Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell groomed and trafficked her starting at 16.
She said she was forced into sexual encounters with powerful men, including Prince Andrew. In 2021, she filed a lawsuit against the royal, claiming he abused her three times between 1999 and 2002 in London, New York, and on Epstein’s private Caribbean island. The case ended with an undisclosed out-of-court settlement in February 2022.
In a statement, Epstein said, “The powerful and rich are not exempt from being held responsible for their actions.” In her advocacy work, Giuffre founded Speak Out, Act, Reclaim (SOAR), a nonprofit organization providing support to survivors of sexual assault. Her efforts to empower other victims earned her widespread recognition.
Earlier in April, Giuffre came forward with allegations of domestic abuse against her husband of 22 years, Robert Giuffre. She said, “After my husband’s latest physical assault, I can no longer stay silent.”
According to her family, Giuffre had suffered serious injuries from an alleged assault on January 9, 2025, in Dunsborough, Western Australia, including a cracked sternum and a perforated eye. Following the incident, her husband filed a family violence restraining order against her, a move family members said left her on the defensive.
Sky and Amanda Roberts, Giuffre’s brother and sister-in-law, said the injuries were so severe that they feared she might not survive another attack. Her sister-in-law said Giuffre acknowledged that “if she had one more instance with him, she wasn’t making it out of there.”
As we had previously reported, Giuffre was hospitalized last month following a crash and later said she had been near death as a result. On March 30, she shared a heartwrenching Instagram post following a car crash in Australia.
“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,” she wrote in the caption.
The lengthy caption also revealed a grim fate. “I’ve gone into kidney renal failure, they’ve given me four days to live,” she stated.
Her father, Sky Roberts, expressed deep concern for her and felt utterly helpless as he couldn’t be by her side. “She’s not doing good. She’s depressed because she misses her kids,” he told The Telegraph.
“She’s got four days unless she gets another opinion from another doctor. It could be that she could pass away in four days, like she said. But if she gets another doctor, they could probably do other things for her,” he continued.
Roberts hasn’t spoken to his daughter since the accident, but his son, Giuffre’s brother, has kept him updated about her condition and has been trying to keep her spirits up so she doesn’t throw in the towel.
“She’s in really bad shape. She’s very depressed… there’s everything else she’s been going through with the divorce and not being able to see her kids,” Roberts said. He also confessed that he and Giuffre were once close, but their relationship strained over time.
Still, he would give anything to be at her side. “I’m sick to my stomach. I feel like crying because I love my daughter more than life. If there’s anything I could do, I’d do it,” he said. He’s currently stuck at home in the US with no funds to travel to Australia.
Speaking of their relationship, Giuffre’s father hadn’t known about his daughter’s ordeal as one of Epstein’s sex trafficking victims until her story made national headlines in the UK.
“I feel so sorry for my daughter, for everything she’s went through. […] At the time that she was going through it, I had no idea,” he shared in a December 2019 interview with “Good Morning Britain.”
Still, he said he loved Giuffre very much and thought she was “really brave” for speaking out and coming up against such powerful figures.
He wished he had known what was happening during Giuffre’s ordeal. “I mean, as a parent, you [kind of] ask the question, you know, ‘How can you not know your children are doing this?'” he reflected. However, he added that his daughter did well to conceal her turmoil.
“When she would come home from these trips, she said nothing about it, you know? And it must’ve been killing her inside. But for powerful people like that, they can threaten a young girl like that,” Roberts said.
He added that influential people can threaten to harm their victims’ loved ones, which can explain why victims keep quiet. In light of that, he was proud of Giuffre’s bravery in speaking out and fighting back.
When asked if he believed she was telling the truth, he responded, “I have no doubt at all that she’s telling the truth.” After watching the interviews with Prince Andrew, Roberts felt it was clear that he was being dishonest.
“She [Virginia] has no reason to not tell the truth about this, and he has every reason to deny it,” he stated.
When she was around 15, Giuffre got a part-time job as a changing room assistant at President Donald Trump’s country club, Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, where her father worked as a maintenance manager.
This is where she met Epstein’s associate Maxwell. The two struck up a conversation, and Giuffre told Maxwell she wanted to be a masseuse.
“She said she worked for a very wealthy gentleman who was looking for a travelling masseuse. I’d get training and be paid well,” Giuffre recalled. And so, with her father’s blessing, the arrangement was made.
Roberts believed it was a good opportunity for his daughter to learn a skill and get paid by a wealthy employer. Unfortunately, Giuffre would reveal many years later that she was sexually trafficked by Epstein.
She would be forced to have sex with wealthy men, among whom is — allegedly — Prince Andrew. Giuffre first met the Prince in 2001 and claimed she was forced to sleep with him on three separate occasions: at Maxwell’s London home, Epstein’s New York mansion, and his private island in the US Virgin Islands.
Prince Andrew denied the allegations and even claimed he didn’t recall ever meeting her, though a photo of him and Giuffre still circulates online.
She eventually sued him, but in 2022, the pair settled the matter out of court. A statement from their lawyers read, “The parties will file a stipulated dismissal upon Ms. Giuffre’s receipt of the settlement (the sum of which is not being disclosed).”
Although the settlement sum was not revealed, it was speculated that it would be millions of dollars (or pounds).
Prince Andrew is not the only one who stands firm that Giuffre’s allegations are unfounded. While Giuffre’s post drew sympathy from many, one public figure close to the Prince Andrew controversy has taken a sharply different stance.
Lady Victoria Hervey, a former girlfriend of Prince Andrew, reacted with open skepticism. Posting to her Instagram stories, she shared the photo of Giuffre’s bruised face.
Hervey continued to voice her doubts in a series of posts. In one, she questioned why Giuffre’s husband had remained silent. She claimed he “knows the truth of the fake photo and all her con jobs.”
In another story, Hervey dismissed Giuffre’s claims of having only days to live. She suggested that law enforcement was closing in, alleging the FBI was preparing to act. “She’s conveniently dying to evade jail,” she wrote.
She also implied a pattern, saying that each time a legal proceeding approached, Giuffre would “come up with something like this.” Calling Giuffre “the Queen of the fake photo,” Hervey expressed distrust of visual evidence alone. She said she would not jump to conclusions.
Hervey’s most pointed comments accused Giuffre of destroying lives and families for financial gain. She called the situation “divine judgment by God,” and said karma has a way of catching up.
In a final story, Hervey brought up Giuffre’s associate, Maria Farmer, questioning her credibility and past legal actions. She suggested both women had submitted false evidence to authorities. Hervey’s recent comments are not the first time she has come to Prince Andrew’s defense.
In April 2024, she appeared on a podcast and openly supported the Duke of York. “I can defend Prince Andrew and say this guy is absolutely innocent,” she said.
