News

Prince Andrew's ex Lady Hervey claims infamous photo is fake

Prince Andrew's ex Lady Hervey claims infamous photo is fake
Lady Victoria Hervey says Epstein 'couldn't have done it without Ghislaine'
ITV

Prince Andrew's former love interest Lady Victoria Hervey has claimed the infamous photo of Virginia Giuffre and Andrew is fake.

The 44-year-old socialite and daughter of the 6th Marquess of Bristol took to Instagram Stories with a series of slides.

On Monday, she posted a dubious-looking image of Giuffre standing alone against a grey and yellow wall, to which she quizzed her 113,000 followers: "Anyone familiar with this photo?"

She has since claimed it was a painting "of the original image before they added an empty background of GM house", adding: "It was taken on the yacht in the south of France from Naomi [Campbell's] birthday."

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Lady Hervey then followed up with the early 2001 photo of Andrew next to Giuffre with Ghislaine Maxwell standing in the background.

"Do you believe that photo is real? Or what if I told you a survivor of Epstein's told me it's an Irish body double that was edited in, "she concluded in the final slide. It's unclear whether she was referring to a double of the disgraced royal or Guiffre.

Of course, these are unsubstantiated claims and no evidence to support them.

Hervey later returned to Instagram to offer more alleged "clues" to her followers.

"Sorry if I was not clear regarding the photos. The original photo was printed so what you see is one of the other girls painting.

"I will give more info later on this,"

"But the guy they used is in fact a body double that they photoshopped Andrew's head onto," she claimed.

She concluded by saying: "People have reached out to me with information that should have been uncovered by the press who need to start doing their jobs,"

Hervey then threw a jibe towards the Daily Mail, claiming they paid "£170k" for what she states are fake photos.

"What happens if you sell fake photos for £170k to a newspaper I would be pi**ed if I was the Daily Mail right now," she penned.

"Can you be charged?"

The socialite appears to be echoing Prince Andrew's notorious interview with BBC Newsnight in 2019. He said: "You can't prove whether or not that photograph is faked because it's a photograph of a photograph of a photograph."

"It's very difficult to be able to prove it but I don't remember that photograph being taken… That's me but whether that's my hand…I have simply no recollection of the photograph ever being taken."

Six days prior, Hervey called Maxwell's trial a "witch hunt" in a baffling Instagram post, adding: "This story has been so blown out of proportion...

"I know Ghislaine is obviously not a saint and should pay back the trauma caused to her 'victims' but lifetime in jail for touching a girl's t** 20 years ago and taking them on yacht, private jet and shopping trips. Come on."

Andrew has continually denied all of the allegations.

Indy100 reached out to Virginia Giuffre's reps for comment.

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The Conversation (0)