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The 95-year-old Queen Elizabeth will "dig deep into her pockets" in order not to further damage the institution of the monarchy in Britain. According to reports in the British press, the "evergreen" monarch intends to pay part of the large sum that her second son, 61-year-old Prince Andrew, has agreed to pay to the 38-year-old American Virginia Jufre and to a charity she has set up for victims of abuse, in order to prevent the lawsuit filed against him by Jufre before the American judiciary from being heard.
On Tuesday, lawyers for the Duke of York and Virginia Jufre announced that the two sides had reached an out-of-court settlement with Prince Andrew being ordered to pay an "unspecified" amount to the woman who accuses him of raping her three times when she was a 17-year-old minor. Jufre was one of American paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein's sex slaves and, she says, it was Epstein's girlfriend, Gislaine Maxwell, who introduced her to the British blue blood.
However, although the announcement of the out-of-court settlement does not detail the amount the British prince has agreed to pay his victim, the Telegraph reveals that Elizabeth's favourite son will pay 14 million. euros in total to avoid a trial in New York that was scheduled for the coming months, and in fact, the money will be divided between Jufre and the foundation for abused women that she has founded.
Following the announcement of the out-of-court settlement, the palace felt relieved as it will end the vilification of Prince Andrew whose involvement in the Epstein scandal had caused a "headache" in Buckingham as a possible trial in the US would tarnish the celebrations of Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee, scheduled for next June and expected to last four days with spectacular events across the UK.
According to the Telegraph, in the text of the out-of-court settlement, Prince Andrew does not apologise to Jufre as he does not admit the allegations she made against him, but he does admit that the American was a "victim of abuse" and says he regrets his friendship with paedophile financier Geoffrey Epstein. The same text stresses that the prince accepts that Virginia Jufre was the victim of "unfair public attacks" and says he never intended to slander her.
Andrew, who has been stripped of his royal powers for months after the lawsuit filed against him by Jufre, has been under pressure from palace officials to settle with the American woman as soon as possible before his mother's Platinum Jubilee. However, the "black sheep" of the royal family is not expected to participate in the celebrations as, as recently as February 4, it became known that Prince Charles asked his brother to remain on the sidelines so as not to provoke public sentiment.
Source: Proto Thema
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