This morning, I was reading the weekly newsletter from journalist, author and artist Suleika Jaouad and she quotes Muriel Rukeyser, “What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? The world would split open.” I took a deep inhale when I saw those words. I have just finished reading the memoir Nobody’s Girl by the now deceased Virginia Roberts Giuffre, that is an all out accusation against sexual assailants and traffickers Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. He is dead, allegedly by his own hand, but evidence leads to the possibility of another cause. She is incarcerated but, in August, was moved to a less restrictive environment by the current administration. We can guess why.
Giuffre’s death in April of 2025 was ruled a suicide and given the many decades ordeal she went through, it is plausible. She references suicidal ideation toward the end of the book.
As a therapist with four decades of experience working with trauma and abuse survivors, I knew I had to read the book but wasn’t emotionally prepared for what I would find in its 367 pages of narrative. Initially, I could turn 10 pages at a time and then needed to put it down and collect myself. TRIGGER ALERT for anyone who, themselves, is a survivor of sexual trauma. It is graphic and visceral. Her exploitation didn’t begin with the Epstein and Maxwell, but rather her father who sexually abused her in childhood and trafficked her to a friend of his as well. Her mother was physically and emotionally abusive. Her childhood and early adolescence was a time of chaos, running away from home and a residential treatment program her parents put her in where she was also abused. Drugs and alcohol were in the mix. She was the perfect target for sex traffickers, vulnerable, looking for love and approval and money to support herself. She had been working at Mar-A-Lago as her father was employed there. As a minor, she was in the spa and serviced adults. On a fateful day, she was introduced to Epstein…and the rest is history.
Like many, I hoped she would name names of those who assaulted her and other girls and young women over the years. She offered up a few, such as Prince Andrew but was too intimidated to go after the ‘big fish’. She acknowledged those threats of harming her and her family (husband and three children), as well as keeping her in court indefinitely as they opposed the allegations against them. Her co-author Amy Wallace claims to know the names and circumstances of those Giuffre accused. At one point in her ‘sex slave’ days, Epstein threatened to harm her younger brother if she ran away or told anyone what was happening to her.
I wondered what would have happened, if, in the course of the many instances of abuse, she had been murdered. It was possible, given her description of the brutality she endured. In my opinion, her murder would have been covered up and her body disappeared.
My hope is that they will ALL be outed, regardless of political, social or religious orientation or allegiance. Anger was my primary emotion as I continued reading. I want everyone who harmed these children to be held accountable. I want everyone who aided and abetted to be held accountable. I want everyone who knew but looked the other way to be held accountable. That includes those celebrities, politicians, and business people who liked the glitz and glamour of being in Epstein’s circles. They are all tainted with the slime of the association.
I knew, as I was reading, that I would be writing about the book and found myself penning the words in my sleep, as recently as last night.
Her courage and that of other survivor-accusers, is inspiring. Their stories are high profile but there are so many other children who are preyed upon by adults. I have long struggled with the concept of evil and people embodying it. Now I know it is not hyperbole. There truly ARE evil people in the world. The trope that abusers were abused is not always true. There is no history of abuse in Epstein’s past, but there are allegations of such in Maxwell’s history. Her father, Robert Maxwell, was said to have abused her, creating a mindset that would allow her own monstrous acts to thrive. In my therapy practice, I remind my clients who have survived abuse, that part of their healing is not perpetuating abuse against others and in the process, breaking the cycle. I remind that they have a fierce and protective ally in me. I want every child to be safe in the company of every adult. Appallingly, that is not the case.
It is an important book that gives voice to the voiceless and lets survivors know that they are not alone and when standing together, they can be a force for healing for themselves and each other.
Resources for support:
Speak Out Act Reclaim (SOAR) https://www.speakoutactreclaim.org/about-us
National Human Trafficking Hotline https://humantraffickinghotline.org/en
National Domestic Violence Hotline https://www.thehotline.org/
988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline- call or text 988
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This Post is republished on Medium.
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Photo credit: iStock
