Fellow victim Jeffery Epstein, Annie Farmer, said Virginia Giuffre was under a huge amount of pressure before she died. Ms Giuffre, who accused Prince Andrew of sexual assault after having been trafficked by billionaire paedophile Epstein, found the case “tremendously hard”, Ms Farmer added. Ms Giuffre was found dead at her family farm in Australia at the age of 41, her family confirmed early Saturday morning.

Ms Giuffre was one of the most high-profile Epstein victims after claiming she had sex with the Duke of York. Over the last few months, Ms Giuffre faced a string of further setbacks, which included a custody battle with her husband over their three children, followed by a bus crash which left her severely injured. Ms Farmer explained how Ms Giuffre’s involvement in the case was an “enormous amount of pressure on her”.

“While there were so many really supportive responses, there’ve been those people that have just been really vicious towards her, and I can’t imagine that made anything easier,” she told The Telegraph.

“I think for her, it was next level because of that, because of the Prince part in particular. I think that was tremendously hard. These kinds of battles, it feels like it’s just always ongoing,” she added.

Ms Farmer was one of the four accusers to testify in the sex-trafficking trial against Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend and accomplice, telling the Manhattan court that she was introduced to Epstein by her older sister.

Ms Giuffre filed a defamation lawsuit against Maxwell in 2015 after she accused the victim of lying about the abuse she had suffered. It was later settled in 2017, but the suit was placed under a protective seal.

However, in 2019, around 2,000 sealed pages were released, with further documents being unveiled throughout the following years, detailing names and certain events that the victims suffered.

Ms Farmer told the newspaper: “Virginia meant so much to many of the women involved in this case. Like so many other survivors, I admire her for her courage, her poise under enormous pressure, and her gorgeous spirit.”

Ms Giuffre spent many years speaking out against Epstein and the abuse she suffered. In 2021, she filed a lawsuit accusing Prince Andrew of sexually assaulting her when she was 17. Ms Giuffre agreed to an out-of-court settlement with the Prince, reportedly worth millions of pounds. The Duke of York has always denied the allegations.