The Jeffrey Epstein victim died by suicide without a clear will — but she feared her ‘abusive’ husband would drink and gamble away her royal payout

Virginia Giuffre with her husband Robert in 2023. Above left: an extract from her diary

Josie Ensor, New York
Tuesday July 8 2025, The Times

Virginia Giuffre’s family is preparing for a legal battle with her allegedly abusive husband to stop him inheriting her wealth, which includes an estimated $10 million of Prince Andrew’s money.

Giuffre, who died by suicide at her Perth home in April, had built up a multimillion-dollar estate from victim compensation funds and civil lawsuit settlements resulting from abuse by Jeffrey Epstein and his high-profile friends.

The Times can reveal the California-born 41-year-old died intestate, meaning her husband, Robert Giuffre, could be entitled to as much as a third of that estate under Australian law.

Last week this newspaper published the diary Virginia kept in the final months of her life, as well as text messages and legal filings, in which she alleged Robert was violent and abusive. She had once said Robert “rescued me from Epstein’s clutches” but claimed he later became “emotionally and physically controlling”.

Photographs shared by Virginia’s family, taken after an alleged incident of domestic violence in January, appeared to show her with a black eye and bruising on her face and arms:

Robert denied he attacked Virginia, claiming she hit him during an argument.

“Virginia had asked that these photos be released,” said Dini von Mueffling, the family spokesperson. “We understand that they are hard to see; they are excruciating for us.”

After the incident, Virginia lost custody of her children and was subject to a restraining order granted to Robert that prevented her from contact with her children. Her family says her mental and physical health quickly deteriorated.

At the time of her death on April 25, Virginia was in the middle of divorce proceedings with Robert, her husband of 22 years and father of her three children, but they had not yet been finalised.

In the diary she kept from January until her death, Virginia expressed concerns that Robert would drink and gamble away money she wanted Christian, 19, Noah, 18, and Emily, 15, to one day inherit.

She wrote:

Sky Roberts and Danny Wilson, her brothers in the US, have hired a lawyer in Australia to file a challenge to Robert’s right to the estate, claiming it was their sister’s stated wish that he “not receive a dime”.

Virginia with her brothers, Sky Roberts and Danny Wilson, shortly before her death

Craig Hollett, the Perth lawyer representing Roberts and Wilson, told The Times that Virginia did in fact leave an “informal will at the time of her passing, one that had been drafted by her attorney”, as well as an “implied will” she sent to her lawyers.

“If I don’t make it please don’t let Rob have any money,” Virginia wrote in an email to her attorney on February 26 of this year, with the subject line “implied will”:

In that emailed will, Virginia stated she wanted her money to go to her children, with specific parameters, as well as to other family members and a handful of friends.

Virginia had said in the will drafted by her lawyer she wanted the money to go to her children and her sexual violence support charity, Speak Out, Act Reclaim (Soar).

According to a public notice filed last month in the Western Australian Government Gazette, Christian and Noah, who live with their father, have applied to the court to be appointed administrators of the estate. According to Hollett, they are likely to have needed Robert’s consent to do so.

In response to a request for comment, lawyers for Robert, Christian and Noah Giuffre said Virginia’s death was a “tragedy” but they could not respond to specific claims against Robert because of live legal proceedings.

The family hope the informal and implied wills will be recognised by the court. Wilson, Virginia’s 46-year-old half-brother in Texas, said they wanted to stop Robert being able to “control” her “legacy”, adding: “I’m worried everything she worked for in her life will be just taken.”

Hollett said he believed the family had a good case, saying: “My educated guess is that there is a strong likelihood it will be accepted.”

Virginia and Robert in 2020

Virginia and Robert became estranged in 2024. She claimed in her diary that Robert had grown uncomfortable with the publicity her case against Epstein had attracted and that his behaviour “became more controlling”, adding:

Virginia sued Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell for trafficking her to friends, including Andrew. She later sued the duke himself, alleging he sexually assaulted her when she was 17. He denied the claims, but stepped down from public duties.

Andrew with Virginia and Ghislaine Maxwell

Robert filed for divorce in February this year.

The estate includes whatever remains of the five settlement payouts Virginia received in relation to Epstein’s sex trafficking, including the $10 million one in 2022 from the duke. Queen Elizabeth is believed to have contributed a further $2.7 million to Virginia’s charity Soar from her private Duchy of Lancaster estate.

Legal experts said the late Queen’s money was considered a charitable asset that could be accessed only by board members of Soar. That money is held in an escrow account managed by a third party, meaning Soar’s remaining two board members, including von Mueffling, do not yet have access to it.

Virginia received another civil case settlement in 2017 from Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year federal prison sentence for trafficking Virginia and other young women and girls.

Epstein and Maxwell

She also won compensation from the Epstein estate and JP Morgan, Epstein’s bank, which paid out $290 million to the late sex offender’s victims as part of a class-action lawsuit. Virginia’s lawyers requested the amounts of each settlement not be disclosed, as some were subject to non-disclosure agreements.

The estate also includes several properties. When the couple moved to Perth from Cairns, northeastern Australia, in 2020, they bought a six-bedroom oceanfront property in Ocean Reef for A$1.9 million, according to public records. In August 2023, after securing Andrew’s settlement, they bought a more secluded A$1.2 million ranch in the nearby town of Neergabby:

The home in rural Neergabby

Robert appeared in Perth magistrates’ court in February on a charge of keeping an unsecured firearm and hundreds of rounds of ammunition at the ranch, which were found by police after they attended a call about an “incident of domestic violence” in January.

Robert’s lawyers pleaded with the judge not to convict him, saying he was a “stay-at-home dad going through a separation” and a criminal record would negatively affect his future work prospects. “He’s going to need to start work in the future,” the lawyer said. The magistrate fined him $500.

Virginia suggested in documents seen by The Times that Robert, 49, a former mixed martial arts instructor, had not worked since 2017. She alleged in her diary that Robert had been “living off money I was awarded as a victim of trafficking”.

Sky said he thought the Maxwell payout, which came at the same time Robert is understood to have left full-time employment, “was the moment things started to kind of spiral, because now they’ve got a sum of money and she really started saying enough is enough”.

Her family said it was their wish to have contact with Virginia’s three children, and continue her advocacy work with Soar, which she was trying to build before her death.

Virginia gave a press conference after Epstein’s death as part of her campaigning for survivors of sexual violence

“I don’t want that money and that wealth to perpetuate, I want it to go to her children, her charity, the survivors she’s left in wait,” Danny said. “That was one of her biggest things that we had talked about in the last months of her life. She told me, ‘I want to get my charity ramped up so that I can help the people that are impacted the same way I was’.

“She wanted us to be a part of it. She told me, ‘I know this isn’t the world that you guys want to be in, but we’re a family’.”