How have I only just realised this about Prince Andrew …

[LilacLemur]

I don’t know if I’m just oblivious to things but how have I only just realised Prince Andrew was 41 when he met Virginia Guiffre.

For some reason I thought this happened in the mid 80’s before he was married and definitely before children.

Knowing how old he was and that he had children just makes it so much more shocking (not that it needed to be).

Was anyone else blind to this?

She had the big money and I presume acted on legal advice. The idea of her son assisting the FBI with their enquiries or standing in the dock in a US court was never going to fly.

Because in that family everyone has a gun to each other's head, potentially blowing the lid off secrets kept for decades or possibly longer.

If she did, or he did, it will have been on solid legal advice. He couldn’t prove innocence. A case would have been damaging and embarrassing whichever way it went. It would have cost more to run than settle with the resultant optics. The Jubilee was looming. The Queen was dying. Andrew would have been a complete liability every time he opened his mouth - see Maitless.

It’s actually all pretty simple,

And I’m Bill Gates.

In your opinion only!

We had a Prime Minister who married someone 20 something years younger. The difference being that the woman concerned was in her thirties(?) and consented, even though I think someone with very low self esteem.

The US President likewise.

17 year old girl

Carrie has never struck me as a woman with low self-esteem!

🤣 Same, or if the does then she must hide it well. I suspect there are a few reasons Carrie married Bojo but a crushing lack of self esteem is not one of them!

It was one of his election promises that he would release the Epstein files if elected.

It will never all come out. This is life. Life is dirty and grubby. Money means power. Politics is power. There always have been men who indulged in sex with others as recreation - women who volunteered for it and women who were trafficked. It will always continue. There will always be a supply of yacht girls and party girls who are looking to use sex as a step up in life. I fail to see why people are shocked about this. Look at Clinton! 🤷‍♀️ Talking about children eg Gary Glitter etc is one thing but talking about 17 year olds- hmmm. It's ok if she is 18? It's only going to get worse. Look at things like Only Fans - an easy way to get $$$. It will never change.

The French President met his wife when he was a teenager - she was his teacher! She’s about 25 years older than him.

Wasn’t it almost institutionalised in the circles of the rich & famous? Trump recruited young women from his beauty pageants and staff in his hotel complexes - the whole thing was a racket. It’s grim & there are so many more Andrew’s being kept out of sight…for now. I mean I thought Clinton was another one named & just recently the ex PM of Israel. Lots of Andrew’s around the world among the pillars of patriarchy.

How do you know it is only my opinion
Been discussed for years in books, newspapers, social media ….. general opinions tend to be in agreement with mine

I might be off the mark here but I wondered whether DT aiming for the Nobel peace prize was part of a deflection from this.

one of the saddest parts of the book that i've read is her saying that of all the wealthy guests who visited, only Melinda Gates said publicly that she hated that island, she felt uncomfortable and she thought Epstein was "evil"

How on earth did no one else pick up on it or raise any concerns??

Presumably most of the men who visited were more interested in getting serviced than recognising that their actions were evil

And they need to be held to account!

and thats the saddest part for me :(
Realising how widespread and normalised this kind of crime is

@sadmillenial completely agree

He is not the only one to be named. Plenty of others have been named. The only reason his has gone the furthest is because Virgina had photographic proof. The others have plausible deniability.

A photo of them together is not proof! Only that they met. How many people has PA met in the course of his life? It’s not the original photo either.

How did Hugh Heffner manage to attract his 'bunnies' to live with him?

What attracted Catherine Zeta Jones to the 25 year older Michael Douglas?

For wealthy, high status men there are any number - sadly - of young women willing to party and possibly have sex with them. For some (Melania and CZJ) it pays off. For the men an ever changing cast of young women.

For the more vulnerable (VG, and numerous others) they are used and discarded. When you add in deliberate manipulators such as Epstein and Maxwell - looking for vulnerable girls - it gets worse.

But it is a very common dynamic, sadly. Look at Harvey Weinstein.

Thanks for the link to this very good interview with Ann Wallace. I learned a lot. It explains a lot.

Yes. It was a major reason why the MAGAs were backing Trump ‘Release the files’ was a major part of the Trump campaign.

Only to be told, once Trump was re-elected,

• here’s the first part of the files with more to come
• they are on my desk (Pam Bondi),
• then, there’s nothing more in the files
• and then, there are no files.

I don’t know what they are claiming now. I’ve lost track of what they are now claiming.

Only one signature away from the files being released. And that should happen when the US government shutdown ends.