Lady Victoria Hervey: The most controversial comments of Prince Andrew's ex-girlfriend

Lady Victoria Hervey is no stranger to controversy.

In recent weeks, the socialite and model has been hitting the airwaves to publicly defend her one-time ex-boyfriend, Prince Andrew, who she dated in 1999.

Among other comments, Hervey has claimed the infamous photo of Prince Andrew and Virginia Giuffre is fake and said that Princess Beatrice, Andrew's eldest daughter, 'thanked' her for supporting the Duke of York.

The daughter of the 6th Marquess of Bristol, Hervey is a former socialite and model with a storied past, Yahoo UK breaks down her five most controversial moments.

Claimed Epstein victims are liars

During an appearance on Good Morning Britain on Thursday, Hervey made unsubstantiated allegations that some of Maxwell and Epstein's victims are not telling the truth. "A lot of these girls are liars", she said. "A lot of these girls made it up."

Host Susanna Reid quickly shut down Hervey, but the aristocrat took to Instagram later that day to double down on her unfounded allegations.

"The biggest mix of words when it comes to some of the Epstein girls is calling them 'trafficked' they were indeed paid ESCORTS who could come and go as they wanted", she wrote, "and it is deeply offensive to compare them to girls who are literally kidnapped and kept in chains."

She went on to add that Andrew does not have a criminal record, before adding: "We're gonna believe them against the son of the Queen of England...? Give me a break."

While Epstein died before he could stand trail for the crimes he was charged with, Maxwell has been sentenced to a 20-year custodial sentence for sex trafficking.

Andrew settled the sexual assault case with Giuffre for an undisclosed sum with no admission of liability.

COVID conspiracies

Lady Victoria courted controversy a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, when she publicly espoused conspiracy theories relating to both the virus itself and the vaccines being developed to combat it.

Hervey also disclosed that she had gone into business selling PPE to hospitals, despite believing the virus was "completely hyped".

"It's completely hyped! The biggest worldwide conspiracy that ever happened", she said to the Daily Mail.

She also said that she believed the vaccine was part of a conspiracy to "depopulate" the world.

"Already Bill Gates is saying, "You're going to have to have a third vaccine." This thing isn't going to end. And for anyone thinking of having a baby, there's something in the vaccine that damages the placenta and brings on miscarriages.

"This is one of Bill Gates' goals, to bring out this vaccine to depopulate the world."

Defended Ghislaine Maxwell

Hervey has repeatedly come to the defence of Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted last year on five counts of sex-trafficking.

Hervey was friends with Maxwell in the past and has said that she was used as "bait" by the sex-offender when looking for young women.

Hervey said in an interview on Lorraine that Maxwell was being used as a "scapegoat" for Epstein's crimes, because since his death in 2019 while he was incarcerated and awaiting trial "there is no else to blame".

On Instagram, Hervey wrote in a post that Maxwell was the victim of a "witch-hunt".

"I know Ghislaine is obviously not a saint and should pay back the trauma caused to her "victims" but lifetime in jail for touching a girls t*t 20 years ago and taking them on yacht, private jet and shopping trips. Come on. This has become a witch hunt."

Said homeless people should move to the Caribbean

In 2003, Hervey found herself in hot water when she advised that homeless people simply move to the Caribbean to avoid cold winters.

Her comments made it into the Observer's 'Great Sayings of 2003'.

"It's so bad being homeless in winter", she said. "They should go somewhere warm like the Caribbean where they can eat fresh fish all day."

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