Giselle Gerolami
By the time Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice by Virginia Roberts Giuffre was released in October 2025, Giuffre’s story and the larger story of Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes were well known. The book was published a few months after her untimely death by suicide in April 2025.
The book was the result of years of intense collaboration between Giuffre and writer Amy Wallace. Wallace worked tirelessly to speak in Giuffre’s voice and the result is a powerful testament to Giuffre’s strength and resilience but also a poignant reminder of the devastating and lifelong impact of sexual abuse on survivors.
Giuffre tells her personal story chronologically with the larger Jeffrey Epstein story as a backdrop. This was a tricky approach but the book flows well and just enough information provided to prevent the journalistic and legal details from bogging things down.
Virginia Lee Roberts was born on August 9, 1983 in Sacramento but the family, including Danny, an older half brother, soon moved to Loxahatchee, Florida near West Palm Beach. In February, 1989, a younger brother Sky was born whom she adored and called Skydy. Her early childhood was a happy one filled with adventures with her brothers and riding her beloved horse Alice.
Her father began sexually abusing her when she was about seven. Her mother, rather than protect her, became distant and eventually physically abusive. Giuffre developed painful urinary tract infections but no doctor or teacher intervened.
Her father introduced her to his friend Forrest who Giuffre later found out was abusing his own daughter. With her father’s knowledge and permission, Forrest would take her overnight and abuse her. He was later tried and convicted when other girls came forward. Her father continued to abuse her and threatened to kill her younger brother if she told anyone.
Running Leads Nowhere
When she hit puberty, the abuse suddenly stopped but that’s when she began a period of self-destructive behavior: running away, skipping school, fighting, sex, and drugs. Her mother sent her to a horrific teen rehab facility from which she escaped only to fall into the hands of sex trafficker Ron Eppinger. She escaped and ended up couch surfing with friends or living with boyfriends since she wasn’t welcome to live at home.
In the summer of 2000, when she was 16, her father was working as a maintenance man at Donald Trump’s Mar-a Lago Club and got her a job cleaning and stocking at the spa. This is where she had the misfortune of meeting Ghislaine Maxwell. Maxwell offered her an interview for a position as a masseuse where training would be provided.
The first meeting with Epstein involved sexual abuse by him and Maxwell; this began her two-year nightmare. Never a literal prisoner, she described the experience as “a prisoner trapped in an invisible cage.”
During those two years, Giuffre was trafficked to the world’s rich and powerful. In the book, she names Epstein, Maxwell, Prince Andrew, modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel and MIT scientist Marvin Minsky.
What is noteworthy is those who she is too afraid to name — a “well-known prime minister” around which there has been much speculation, with possibilities including Ehud Barak and Tony Blair. This individual tortured her and she was terrified of him. She begged Epstein not to send her to him but he refused. She also mentions “Billionaire Number One,” “Billionaire Number Two,” a “former U.S. senator,” and top academics, among others.
There are two theories about why Epstein trafficked young girls to the rich and powerful. One was simply to gain influence with them. The other more sinister explanation involves the video cameras that were everywhere on his properties — he wanted to record these men in compromising positions in order to blackmail them later.
Giuffre was asked to perform increasingly violent acts but at this point, she no longer questioned what was happening. She ended up in the hospital with either an ectopic pregnancy or a miscarriage. Although the details were kept from her, she was told she might never be able to have children.
She was tasked with recruiting other girls. Like her, teens and pre-teens with histories of drugs, abuse, and running away were targeted. Girls were told that a billionaire with contacts in acting, modeling and art worlds would like to meet them to make their dreams come true.
Whatever guilt she may have felt about what she was doing was rationalized by the fact that she was upfront with these girls about what would be expected, unlike some of the other recruiters who painted a rosier picture. Later, she would write that “the faces of girls I recruited will always haunt me. I know their pain, and I will never get over playing a role in causing it.”
Giuffre was paid well and some have questioned her intentions and the extent to which she was victimized. In reality, when she hesitated early on, she was presented with a photo of her young brother and told “We know where your brother goes to school. You must never tell a soul what goes on in this house.” This was followed by “And I own the Palm Beach Police Department.”
Giuffre traveled with Epstein and Maxwell to their properties in New York, New Mexico and the infamous island in the U.S. Virgin Islands. She calculated that she went on at least 32 trips to his properties and many international destinations.
Maxwell and Epstein cast themselves as mentors and parent-like figures but this was part of the psychological manipulation. In the summer of 2002, they asked her to have their baby. This was going too far for Guiffre and she had no intention of complying but she could not just say no. Instead, she began plotting her escape.
She agreed on the condition that they deliver on a promise to provide actual formal training as a masseuse. They agreed to send her to Thailand for an eight-week course where she was required to recruit a particular girl.
Escaping
In Chiang Mai, she learned Thai massage and ignored Maxwell’s inquiries about finding the girl. Soon, she met Roberto Antonio Giuffre, an Australian friend of one of her classmates; they quickly fell in love. He proposed, offering to take her back to Australia with him to escape Epstein and Maxwell.
Giuffre and Robbie settled in Sydney; they went on to have three children, two boys and a girl. It was the birth of her daughter Ellie that awakened a desire to come forward about her experience with Epstein.
Giuffre was barely aware of the 2006-2008 events involving Jeffrey Epstein but was outraged when, in 2008, he entered a secret non-prosecution agreement and received a plea deal. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison; only serving 13. During most of his prison time, he was allowed work release and continued to abuse girls.
In May, 2009, Giuffre filed a civil suit against Epstein, having been advised that this would be her only recourse. In November, 2009, she accepted a settlement of $500,000.00. Giuffre and other survivors have been criticized for accepting confidential settlements.
In 2011, she accepted payment from the Daily Mail for her interview, which included a photo with Prince Andrew. The photo was later widely syndicated. This too was used to undermine her credibility. She responded by saying she was naive about the payment, and never accepted further payments for interviews.
On March 17, 2011, she was interviewed by the FBI for the first time. She also connected with attorney Brad Edwards who believed that Epstein’s non-prosecution agreement was in violation of the Crime Victim’s Rights Act of 2004. “The CRVA asserts that crime victims have the right to meaningfully confer with prosecutors in cases brought against those who’ve victimized them.”
In the summer of 2013, partly motivated by a desire to be closer to Edwards and other survivors, Giuffre and her family moved back to the United States, to Titusville, Florida which was close to her brother Danny and his family. In 2014, Edwards joined forces with heavyweight litigator David Boies, a necessary connection to take on Epstein and his endless resources.
Giuffre reconnected with her father although cautiously and never allowing him to be alone with her kids. She finally told her brothers about her father’s abuse, which caused a rift between them. The final straw for her was when she discovered that Epstein had paid her father off. The family then moved to Penrose, Colorado to get far away from him.
In January, 2015, news coverage regarding the allegations of “Jane Doe #3” prompted Maxwell to out Guiffre in an attempt to discredit her. The media dredged up facts from her troubled teen years that made her seem to lack credibility. The paparazzi began to hound her and her family and they experienced other types of intimidation at their home.
By July, 2015, the family decided to return to Australia. Her husband went first while Giuffre stayed to work with her legal team on a defamation lawsuit against Maxwell. By October, they had relocated to Palm Cove near Cairns, Australia.
Mounting Investigations, Mounting Charges
In 2016, Giuffre was deposed twice as was Maxwell. Giuffre’s family and friends were also deposed as was Epstein, who pleaded the Fifth. Maxwell’s depositions were filled with denials, and she would later be charged with perjury. Her motion for summary judgment was denied. The case appeared headed for trial but on May 3, a settlement was reached, the terms of which were confidential.
In 2016-2017, despite the mounting number of cases against Epstein and Maxwell, the issue was fading from public view. In November, 2018, Julie K. Brown of the Miami Herald did an investigative series which refocused attention on Epstein. Shortly afterwards, the U.S. attorney’s office in New York opened an investigation as well.
On July 6, 2019, Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges. He was denied bail and as the case against him geared up, he was found dead in his jail cell on August 10, 2019. Giuffre, like many of the survivors, had mixed emotions about this turn of events: relief that the world had lost a monster but mostly grief over not being able to hold him accountable for his crimes.
In 2019, New York state passed the Child Victims Act, which gave victims until the age of 55 to file claims. Epstein survivors took advantage of this law to file new claims.
In an unusual move, the judge in Epstein’s case allowed a special hearing which was held on August 19, 2019 for the survivors to address the court since his death had robbed them of that. Twenty-three women addressed the court that day, calling themselves the “Survivor Sisters”. In her statement, Giuffre urged pursuit of Epstein’s co-conspirators.
At this moment there was a media frenzy. Giuffre was interviewed on NBC’s “Dateline” and participated in the Netflix series Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich. She was also interviewed on “60 Minutes Australia” as well as the BBC with regard to her allegations against Prince Andrew.
In February 2020, The Miami Herald’s Tara Palmeri was producing a podcast “Broken: Seeking Justice“ which involved tracking down people who worked for Epstein. What they encountered were mostly deadends, with people refusing to be recorded.
Reliving her past through the media took its toll and she realized she was burned out. Giuffre then developed meningitis and broke her neck at the height of the pandemic. She required surgeries which left her in constant pain and was taking strong drugs to deal with it. She suffered a series of other health problems and was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. The psychological toll of her trauma and health problems led to two suicide attempts in 2022.
Maxwell had disappeared after Epstein’s death, but was finally tracked down and arrested on July 2, 2020. Denied bail, she was tried and convicted in late 2021. Giuffre was not called as witness because then all the men she had named would be called as defense witnesses. On June 28, 2022, Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined $750,000.00.
On August 9, 2021, Giuffre sued Prince Andrew in New York State for violating the Child Victims Act. The case was settled on February 15, 2022. He also made a substantial donation to Giuffre’s nonprofit SOAR (Speak Out, Act, Reclaim) which was relaunched in November 2021 to help victims.
Nobody’s Girl does not cover the last few months before Giuffre’s suicide. Giuffre was in regular touch with Amy Wallace and in January 2025 revealed that her husband had been abusive. Although she filed charges, it was she who was served with a restraining order and separated from her children. That was devastating to her. She was adamant about wanting the book released no matter what.
Throughout the book, Giuffre had painted her husband as a loving, supportive and fiercely loyal husband and father. She claimed he had saved her and was her rock, standing behind her at every step as she took on Epstein and Maxwell. There is no mention of abuse of any kind.
Giuffre’s siblings initially expressed concern about this portrayal given what they knew. But it is not at all unusual for survivors of child sexual abuse to end up in abusive relationships — per Wallace’s research they are 15 times more likely. Ultimately, Wallace chose to let the book stand unchanged.
While she did not describe herself as a feminist, Giuffre outlined how much the #MeToo movement was a helpful if incomplete advance for advocacy for survivors of sexual abuse. She had to survive not only the abuse but also the misogyny of those who questioned her motives and indeed her every move, revictimizing her in the process.
Nobody’s Girl is a powerful indictment of, not only Jeffrey Epstein, but the world’s rich and powerful, who treated some of the most vulnerable members of society as disposable objects. The tragedy of her death only adds to the poignancy of her story.
As Epstein associates continue to fall in disgrace, popular pressure mounts in the U.S. and globally for the release of the entire Epstein files. With the demandfor full accountability of those responsible, we will remember her.