Yahoo News Prince Andrew is finding sex abuse trial ‘really hard’, claims close friend
Prince Andrew is struggling to cope with the long-running sex abuse allegations, a close friend has said.
Socialite Lady Victoria Hervey, who is an ex-girlfriend of the royal, told the i newspaper she was still in touch with his family and the case was taking its toll on him.
Virginia Giuffre is suing the duke in the US for allegedly sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager.
Andrew has strenuously denied all allegations.
The case is set to go to trial after a judge threw out the duke's motion to dismiss it in January.
Speaking to The i, Lady Victoria Hervey said: "Obviously, something like this has been really hard for him.
"Imagine getting, you know, having this sort of situation. It’s been going on, what, 10 years now."
She told the newspaper that while Andrew's infamous Newsnight appearance had "obviously backfired", the fact he was willing to do such an interview meant he was confident in his innocence.
"There’s just no way that someone like him would do an interview if there was any inkling that he was not innocent," she added. "There’s just no way and I remember seeing that on TV. I was like, just impossible."
Virginia Giuffre is suing the duke for damages in New York, claiming she was trafficked by infamous financier Jeffrey Epstein to have sex with the royal when she was 17, a minor under US law, at the London home of disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell in the early 2000s.
The duke is also alleged to have sexually abused Ms Giuffre during a visit to Epstein’s private island, Little St James, and on a separate occasion at the financier’s Manhattan mansion.
Following the ruling that Andrew's trial could go ahead, he was stripped of his military titles and royal patronages by the Queen.
At the time, Buckingham Palace said in a statement: "With the Queen’s approval and agreement, the Duke of York’s military affiliations and Royal patronages have been returned to the Queen.
"The Duke of York will continue not to undertake any public duties and is defending this case as a private citizen."
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