Ghislaine Maxwell says infamous Prince Andrew and Virginia Roberts photo is fake in first prison interview

Ghislaine Maxwell has claimed that the infamous picture of Prince Andrew with his arm around a then-17-year-old Virginia Roberts is fake.

The disgraced socialite, 60, made the revelation about her 'dear friend' in her first prison interview as she appeals the 20-year prison sentence she was handed for multiple sex crimes against children.

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Maxwell's claim backs up that of Prince Andrew, 62, who to this day denies having ever met Roberts, now Giuffre, despite paying around $16 million to settle a sex abuse lawsuit she launched against him.

The now 39-year-old claimed that she was trafficked to the British Royal by convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, and while Andrew has never faced any criminal proceedings, he was forced to step back from his role in the Royal Family.

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"At this time, I no longer believe that to be a true image, and I don’t believe that it is what it appears to be," Maxwell said of the picture which was taken on March 10, 2001, the MailOnline reports.

Contradicting the opinion of experts and commentators, she added: "There are so many things that are wrong with it. As soon as my appeal is over, I will be very happy to discuss it with you."

This marks a complete u-turn from that Maxwell said about the image back in 2015, when she was asked if the image, which was first published back in 2011, was real.

She told lawyer Alan Dershowitz: "If you see a photograph and it’s a photograph of you in your home, and someone says to you, 'Is that a picture of you?' you don't question it."

However, she has now said that while she recognises the surroundings of the picture, she remembers 'nothing more than that.'

She has said that there are more than 50 problems with the image, which was instrumental in disgracing Prince Andrew, but refused to say exactly what they were.

Alamy / Matt Crossick

"I don't know exactly how many points there are, but there are over 50 problems with the picture," she said. 

"So I don't believe it's a true picture."

Prince Andrew told Newsnight of the picture back in 2019: "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."

Giuffre herself was the one to hand the image over to the FBI back in 2011, when they visited her Australian home where they collected 20 photographs.

As reported by the MailOnline, it's not known what happened to the original photograph.