EXCLUSIVE: Express investigations editor Zak Garner-Purkis tracked down one of the lesser heard voices in the scandal that shook a nation.
Virginia Giuffre’s ex-boyfriend has claimed he received a desperate call from Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s accuser telling him Jeffrey Epstein wanted the then 17-year-old to “have sex with the prince”.
Speaking to the Express, Tony Figueroa, described how he supported the traumatised Giuffre before and after her alleged encounters with the former Duke of York. Andrew has consistently and vehemently denied all allegations against him.
“She called me before anything happened and was like, ‘I’m so scared, like I don’t know, you know, what I should do here. He wants me to have sex with the prince’ and she didn’t want to do it,” Figueroa claimed.
“[Giuffre] felt completely unsafe [and] I guess she was just trying to make it known what the hell was going on in case something happened.”
Figueroa said he felt utterly helpless when the alleged call took place, stranded thousands of miles away from his childhood sweetheart.
He added: “There was nothing I could do about it. I could make a phone call if something happens, but there’s nowhere I could go to help. [She was] halfway around the world.
“It was horrible, knowing my f****** girlfriend was trapped in that situation. And that’s when s*** started getting real. After that, it was basically like just worrying half the time, it was scary and I didn’t want to leave her. It kept feeling like we could have been killed by anybody for her not doing s***.”
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor lost all his royal titles as a result of the Epstein scandal (Image: Getty)
In the early days of their relationship, the teenage Figueroa would often drop Giuffre off at Epstein’s mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, where he believed she was working as a massage therapist. During these visits, he met the notorious sex offender and his co-conspirator Ghislane Maxwell, who would pressure him to bring his teenage friends over for money.
“[Maxwell] would just be like, ‘[have] you got any friends that want to come over here and make some extra money doing massage?’ it was always under the guise of just massage.
“She never paid me anything, it was always Jeffrey. He would give me money for just bringing them over to the house. Like, [he’d say;] ‘whoever you bring over, I give you $200 for any girl that shows up.’ So if I came over with just like three friends, he would give me $600.”
Figueroa still vividly recalls the moment Virginia revealed the gruesome truth that lay behind Epstein and Maxwell’s interest in young women, including her, and the serious consequences that followed.
“I was just like in utter disbelief. Even though I had those thoughts in my head from everybody telling me [Jeffrey was exploiting her], like I still didn’t f****** believe it until she actually told me.
Jeffery Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell ran a sex trafficking network (Image: Getty)
“Once [Epstein] got arrested the first time and I had to start talking to the FBI this whole situation has just been hell.
“In all honesty, half the time when I do interviews [like this one with the Express], I get so nervous thinking that somebody is like out for me just for even talking about it.
“It makes me nervous as hell. I’ve been trying to stop doing interviews about this s*** for so long. [But] I kind of feel just because Virginia’s dead that I kind of have to.”
We hand-delivered these allegations to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor in Norfolk, offering him both a right of reply and an on-camera interview. We have received no response.
Watch the Express’s powerful documentary series on the relationship between Jeffery Epstein and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on the Express Report YouTube channel.