Welcome back to Books With Cause. This one is a harrowing account of abuse, silence, and the long fight to be heard.
I want to preface this by saying that this review will not be like my others. While the majority of what I read is fiction, I do read non-fiction from time to time. I also rate the books I read purely based on one criterion: My enjoyment of them. For that reason, this book will not have a rating, because this is not a book designed for anybody’s “enjoyment”. And that’s not me saying that non-fiction books aren’t to be enjoyed. I have enjoyed many non-fiction books before, including memoirs. This memoir is a harrowing read from start to finish. Even more so when you consider this book is a posthumous release.
The single overall feeling from reading this book is sadness. Virginia Roberts didn’t have the greatest start in life. She states that her own father abused her, along with her father’s friend. Her mother turned a blind eye and packed her off to a rehab centre. The only love Virginia got was from her two brothers, who were too young to realise what was going on or to do something about it.
It was when Virginia was working at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago that she first met Ghislaine Maxwell, who approached her under the pretence of offering her a “better” job. Virginia had ambitions of being a masseuse at the time and genuinely believed she was being recruited to be a private masseuse for Jeffrey Epstein. But in that very first encounter, Epstein and Maxwell sexually abused Roberts together.
The tragic part of all this links back to her own childhood. Because of the way Virginia had been treated by her own father, it left her believing that she deserved the abuse that Epstein and Maxwell subjected her to. It wasn’t long before she was in Epstein’s permanent employment, and she flew all over the world with him, servicing not only him but many of his friends, too. Of course, there’s no way this book would be complete without the accounts of the three times she was abused by Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor – then known as Prince Andrew. It’s because of him and that car crash interview he did with Emily Maitlis that I became aware of Virginia in the first place. The kindest thing I can say about Andrew is that at least (according to Virginia’s version of events) he said “Thank you” after he fucked her for the first time.
This book is quite appropriately broken up into four parts. The first part recounts her growing up. The second part revolves around her meeting Maxwell and Epstein and the years she spent with them. The third part is where she meets Robbie Giuffre, an Australian man who would go on to marry. She escaped Epstein by going to Australia with Robbie, where they had three children together. Then the fourth part deals with multiple court trials against Epstein, Maxwell, Andrew and many others.
After years of staying silent, it was the birth of her daughter that inspired Virginia to fight back. Of course, she always knew she wasn’t Epstein’s only victim, but it took a number of them to get together and have a real impact. Fight for justice together. The last few chapters also cover Epstein’s death (an apparent suicide) and Maxwell’s being sentenced to twenty years in prison. While in both cases, it’s a start, it’s not really justice. It’s only the beginning.
As noted before, this is a posthumous release. Virginia died in 2025 – apparently by suicide, but I don’t think I’m convinced of that. In a further twist to the tale, it turns out that Virginia was physically abused by her husband, too. Within the book, this is only referenced in the foreword by Virginia’s co-author, Amy Wallace. Virginia’s no longer around, but this cannot be the end of it. The fact that she lived long enough to have her three children and enjoy them for the most part is something. Likewise, the fall of Andrew may not have been possible without her. In Andrew and Maxwell, we’re finally starting to see bad people get what they deserve. But even that’s not enough. Andrew should be behind bars for the rest of his life. While Epstein got the easy way out. That’s not justice. There are other people whom Virginia alludes to in the book but doesn’t outright name out of fear. We’ve probably all seen a few pages of the Epstein files, but the majority of them are redacted. But it’s not the victim’s names being protected, it’s the perpetrators. Something has to be done. Something needs to change.
