Prince Andrew has settled the lawsuit filed against him by Virginia Giuffre, who says she was forced to have sex with the British royal while she was a minor and under the control of his longtime friend, the late financier Jeffrey Epstein.
"Virginia Giuffre and Prince Andrew have reached an out of court settlement," Giuffre's attorney David Boies said in a letter filed Tuesday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. "The parties will file a stipulated dismissal upon Ms. Giuffre’s receipt of the settlement (the sum of which is not being disclosed)."
The letter added that the Duke of York "intends to make a substantial donation to Ms. Giuffre’s charity in support of victims’ rights."
"Prince Andrew has never intended to malign Ms. Giuffre’s character, and he accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks," the letter states. "It is known that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked countless young girls over many years. Prince Andrew regrets his association with Epstein, and commends the bravery of Ms. Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others. He pledges to demonstrate his regret for his association with Epstein by supporting the fight against the evils of sex trafficking, and by supporting its victims."
Filed alongside the letter was a joint request from Giuffre and Andrew that Judge Lewis Kaplan suspend all proceedings, noting that a formal stipulation of dismissal would be filed within 30 days.
Kaplan granted the request in an order filed Tuesday, specifying that the dismissal documents must be filed by March 17.
A spokesperson for the Duke of York told BuzzFeed News that he had no additional comment "beyond the statement filed as part of the court docket."
Giuffre, 38, alleged that Andrew sexually abused her when she was under the age of 18 on multiple occasions in New York, London, and on Epstein's private island in the US Virgin Islands between 2000 and 2002.
She filed a lawsuit against the duke in New York federal court in August for battery and emotional damages. She was able to sue under the state's then-active Child Victims Act of 2019, a temporary law that allowed people up to the age of 55 to file civil lawsuits related to childhood sexual abuse — no matter when the incident took place — during a limited time period.
The Queen's second son has repeatedly denied having sex with Giuffre, most notably in a disastrous November 2019 BBC interview wherein he claimed he had never met her. In the interview, he also claimed that Giuffre's memory of sweatily dancing with him in a club before he forced her to have sex with him was false, as he has a medical condition that prevents him from perspiring.
Shortly after the interview aired, the duke announced that he would be stepping back from life as a working member of the royal family and all public duties, saying "the circumstances relating to my former association with Jeffrey Epstein has become a major disruption to my family’s work and the valuable work going on in the many organizations and charities that I am proud to support."
Giuffre's lawsuit was the final nail in the coffin. On Jan. 13, one day after Kaplan ruled that the case against Andrew would not be dismissed, the Queen announced that she had stripped her second son of his remaining royal privileges — his honorary military appointments and patronages.
"The Duke of York will continue not to undertake any public duties and is defending the case as a private citizen," Buckingham Palace said in a statement.