Though her book doesn’t bring new revelations, it has certainly intensified fresh allegations against Prince Andrew, who is striving to manage the repercussions from his longstanding scandal surrounding his association with Jeffrey Epstein.

In her memoir, which surged to the top of Amazon’s bestseller list even before its official release, Virginia Giuffre details her initial encounter with Prince Andrew in March 2001. She claims that, years later, the prince’s associates attempted to hire “internet trolls” to harass her when she pursued legal action against him.

Giuffre has consistently claimed she was recruited at the age of 16 by Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. She alleges they introduced her to Prince Andrew in London when she was 17, and asserts she was coerced into having sexual relations with the prince on three occasions.

In her account, Giuffre recalls Maxwell waking her up on the day she first met Andrew, telling her it would be a special day because, “just like Cinderella,” she would meet “a handsome prince.”

During their meeting, Giuffre recounts that the prince remarked, “my daughters are just a little younger than you.” Maxwell then instructed her to “do for him what you do for Jeffrey,” she writes, noting that she dared not defy Maxwell’s orders. Giuffre claims Epstein later handed her $15,000 for having sex with Prince Andrew.

She said when they met, the prince told her that “my daughters are just a little younger than you.” She said Maxwell instructed her to “do for him what you do for Jeffrey,” adding: “I knew better than to question her orders.” She said that Epstein gave her $15,000 soon after for having sex with Andrew.

Giuffre wrote that she had sex with the royal a second time at Epstein’s house in New York about a month later, and a third time on Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean along with about eight other girls who she said all appeared to be under 18.

Of that settlement, Giuffre wrote: “After casting doubt on my credibility for so long – Prince Andrew’s team had even gone so far as to try to hire internet trolls to hassle me – the Duke of York owed me a meaningful apology as well.”

“We would never get a confession, of course. That’s what settlements are designed to avoid,” she added.

“But we were trying for the next best thing: a general acknowledgment of what I’d been through.”

Andrew, the second son of the late Queen Elizabeth II, had already stepped down from all of his public duties and charity roles in 2019, after an attempt to dispel reports about his friendship with Epstein backfired badly.

The prince was widely criticised for the BBC interview, in which he offered unbelievable explanations for his continued relationship with the disgraced financier. He also denied that he had ever had sexual contact with Giuffre, that he had “no recollection” of meeting her and “absolutely no memory” of a now infamous photograph showing him with his arm around her waist in 2001.

Andrew also said in the same interview that he had cut off contact with Epstein in December 2010.

Last week, British newspapers published an email that purportedly showed that the royal had remained in contact with Epstein longer than he had admitted. In the note, reportedly from February 28, 2011, Andrew said they were “in this together” and would “have to rise above it.”

Separately, London’s Metropolitan Police force said that it was looking into a report in the Mail on Sunday that Andrew in 2011 asked one of his police bodyguards to find out if Giuffre had a criminal record.

Buckingham Palace and the UK government are under pressure to formally strip Andrew of his dukedom and princely title, and kick him out the 30-room mansion near Windsor Castle where he lives.

Ghostwriter Amy Roberts, who co-wrote the memoir, said that Andrew also should agree to testify in the US about what he knew of Epstein’s crimes.

Roberts told the BBC that Giuffre “deserves all credit for whatever role she played in forcing Prince Andrew to relinquish a few more of his titles. But she deserves all credit even more than that for being brave enough to stand up to say, ‘This isn’t right.’”