Former Prince Andrew took out loan from UK royals to pay off sex abuse accuser: Report

​​​​​​​By Aysu Bicer

LONDON (AA) - Former Prince Andrew has not repaid £12 million ($17 million) loaned to him by members of the royal family to fund his settlement with Virginia Giuffre concerning sexual abuse allegations, according to reports Thursday in the British tabloid The Sun.

The newspaper said the late Queen Elizabeth II contributed £7 million toward the 2022 out-of-court settlement.

Another £3 million reportedly came from the estate of Prince Philip, who died in 2021. It is also reported that then-Prince Charles contributed £1.5 million, with other royals adding smaller amounts.

A source quoted by the paper said, “Andrew’s not paid back a penny.”

The former Duke of York reached a reported £12 million settlement with Giuffre in March 2022, without admitting liability. He has always denied any wrongdoing.

Giuffre, a US national, had alleged that she was trafficked by the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to have sex with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, as he is now known, on three occasions, including when she was 17.

A photograph showing the prince with his arm around Giuffre in London has been widely circulated. Andrew has said he has no recollection of meeting her.

Andrew planned to repay the money by selling his Swiss ski chalet in Verbier, valued at around £19 million, according to reports. But the sale is said to have generated little or no profit because of heavy mortgage debt.

The royal family reportedly agreed to fund the settlement to draw a line under the scandal ahead of Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022.

The case followed Andrew’s widely criticized 2019 BBC interview, in which he denied the allegations and said he had been at a Pizza Express restaurant on one of the dates in question.

Epstein died in jail in 2019. His associate Ghislaine Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking. Giuffre died last April at the age of 41.