Prince Andrew’s ex claims photo of him with accuser Virginia Giuffre ‘could be body double’

Prince Andrew’s ex has claimed the infamous photo which shows him with his accuser Virginia Giuffre in Jeffrey Epstein’s home is faked.

Virginia Giuffre is seeking unspecified damages from the Queen’s son in a civil case in the US over alleged abuse which he vehemently denies.

Now the Prince’s former girlfriend Lady Victoria Hervey suggested on Wednesday to her 113,000 Instagram followers that the image may have been photoshopped, a claim also made by the Duke in his 2019 Newsnight interview.

The 44-year-old socialite bizarrely claimed an “Irish body double” had been edited into the photo.

It was not clear whether the body double was alleged to be Prince Andrew or Virginia Giuffre.

She posted what appeared to be an edited version of the picture in which Ms Giuffre is seen standing alone against a yellow wall and with a blue coat in her hand.

Ms Victoria Hervey wrote on her Instagram story: “Anyone familiar with this photo?”

She then posted the original photo in which Ghislaine Maxwell stands in the background with the caption: “Do you believe that photo is real?

“Or what if I told you that a survivor of Epstein’s told me that it’s an Irish body double that was edited in.”

The aristocrat, who is daughter of the 6th Marquess of Bristol, claimed to show “another clue” as she circled a blonde haired woman in a picture with Epstein.

Previously, Prince Andrew told BBC’s Newsnight that the photo, said to have been taken in the upstairs of Jeffrey Epstein’s London home, may have been faked.

He said: “From the investigations that we’ve done, you can’t prove whether or not that photograph is faked or not because it is a photograph of a photograph of a photograph."

But Ms Giuffre, who is suing Prince Andrew over alleged sexual abuse in a civil court in New York, has insisted it is genuine.

The UK High Court has been asked to help secure evidence ahead of the case which looks set to go to trial.

The presiding judge, Lewis A Kaplan, has written to both the Senior Master of the Queen’s Bench Division and the Australian Attorney General for help in obtaining evidence for the civil claim, court documents revealed earlier this week.

The judge has asked for Andrew’s former assistant Robert Olney to be questioned.

He wants to see if the former assistant can shed some light on the duke’s relationship with Maxwell, Epstein and Ms Giuffre as well as his travel to Epstein’s homes.