BEFORE WE BEGIN : THE BRITISH ROYAL FAMILY IS ON MY MIND

We will begin the month of April shortly: 

Last February 2025, I featured Lilly Langtry, a mistress of King Edward VII (when he was still Prince Edward) as Mistress of the Month.  My primary source for that month's posts came from Ian Graham's book titled "Scarlet Women" in which she was one of the women Graham wrote about. A couple months ago I went to a library where there were several books on King Edward VII (Great Britain) and his 'love life'. I took them home and read them.

In the last several months, partly because of the Jeffrey Epstein Sex Trafficking Scandal, which has only gotten more scandalous since the release of the Epstein Files, I've been thinking about the former Prince Andrew (stripped of his titles, honorariums, and all opportunities to work for Great Britain as a member of the Royal Family, now simply Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor) though he was raised as the second to the throne. I've been thinking of Sarah Ferguson, Andrew's wife and best friend since their divorce years ago. Both have been essentially banished and removed. 

I featured Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, and back in September of 2023. I found her memoir unexpectedly well written and interesting.

I've been reading news articles and listening to media coverage about the Royal Family and the issues they must deal with. I sometimes listen to the YouTube station which is owned by and stars Lady Colin Campbell, who I featured here in June of 2024. (Lady Colin Campbell is also a book author, famous for publishing the first book about Princess Diana and Prince Charles and their marriage.)

I don't agree with all her opinions but, as one of her son's said recently, she is a character and perceptive and often right.

Lady Colin Campbell discussed the reality of wives and mistresses in her family and among the British settled in Jamaica in her memoir about growing up in "Daughter of Narcissus".

She doesn't much like Prince Harry or his wife, Princess Meghan, and she once defended Prince Andrew, until she learned he was lying. And, as you most recent readers know, I devoted January of this year to Virginia Guiffre, and her book about being an Epstein sex trafficked survivor. Prince Andrew is in deep trouble as a result of his involvement with the evil Epstein.

I wonder, if it's true that, perhaps, the ex-Prince Andrew and his, as I see it, sex addiction which got him in such terrible trouble, is an inherited trait. Is it genetic? Nature versus nurture? Does it have something to do with being born into high status and riches, with what would seem to be extreme opportunity, but also strong expectations and limitations on what he might do with his blessed life?  Prince Harry was long a second to the throne just as Andrew was, and he has established a life very different than what was expected of him but, though I sense he is happy in his marriage and with his children, he is condemned for abandoning those expectations that he would be a helpmate to his older brother, future King Prince William. But let's face it. Harry certainly did some running around and partying and had other relationships while remaining unmarried until he settled down with his wife, however controversial they are. (Lady Colin Campbell is just one British media person who heavily condemns him and his wife. Frankly, I don't know how it is that the both of them are still standing because it seems there is nothing either of them can do without international criticism.)

These days the privacy granted pre-Internet of persons of high birth and high achievement by the media is gone. Back in the day, the British tabloids might have called Andrew "Randy Andy" but the details were generally kept from us. What emerged were well researched books about these interesting persons who, it could be said, had the world in their hands.

Of all the British princes and kings who have had mistresses, perhaps it is true that Edward Albert, Prince of Wales who became King Edward VII, was among King's who had mistresses, the British Royal most known to be a sex addict. Lillie Langtry was not his first lover, but his first well known and accepted (i.e. official) mistress after his marriage. Said to have been introduced to sex very young - perhaps fourteen - in Paris, the young prince, well before his marriage at twenty-one, was reportedly avid for sex and also went to prostitutes. Though he had some work before he became King and more after, he went about his official duties distracted by and intent on pleasure.

I will be focused on this monarch, who was Queen Elizabeth II's great grandfather, and his mistresses over the next months. I hope you will join in our discovery!

Missy

VIRGINIA LOUISE ROBERTS GIUFFRE : WE CAN'T NOT HEAR WHAT SHE'S SAID : FORCED PROSTITUTION AND INTERNATIONAL SEX TRAFFICKING : A DEVASTATING BOOK

 

VIRGINIA ROBERTS GIUFFRE

Born in California 1983 - Died by Suicide 2025 Australia

Nobody's Girl, written with a ghost writer, American award-winning journalist Amy Wallace, is the work of Virginia Robert Giuffre, was just one of the many women who were raped by the mysteriously wealthy New Yorker, and it'll hurt your heart to read it. 

I'm dedicating this month to a woman who was never a Mistress, or a Courtesan, but whose influence may be so profound that people around the world may begin to question their attitudes about women and sex; Virginia Roberts Giuffre was forced into prostitution and was sex trafficked to powerful and elite men as a nubile teenager. Virginia escaped two years of being trafficked by gaining the confidence of Jeffrey Epstein and his partner Ghislaine Maxwell. She actually agreed to carry and give birth to a baby - to hand it over to them - if they would finally send her to massage school as had initially been promised her. They sent her to Thailand to school there, through what seemed to be both fateful and spiritual means in that country, she met a man who quickly married her and took her to a new life in Australia. At the time of her death, they were estranged. There had been intense pressure and threats to her life. Virginia was one of the women who came forth to tell; eventually Epstein's death by suicide while in jail became suspicious - as is her suicide. 

Her book reveals herself to be, first and foremost, a loving mother of three children, and a woman who had tremendous challenges to overcome, including post traumatic stress syndrome. For their sake, I so wish she could have held on.

As you know, me and my blog stand for Choice but I'm realistic about it. I idealistically want everyone to have Choice all the time which includes never ever having sex when you don't want to - even when married. Let it be said that there are forces upon us that are cultural and societal and religious and - well, we often have to make the best of our situation. When it comes to who gets sex trafficked, while some people are abducted, many are lied to or solicited. It would seem that predators know when a child is someone that no one cares about.

Many of the women I've featured here at Mistress Manifesto created lives for themselves when women had very little Choice. They were remarkable enough in their time and place, because they survived or because they became famous or infamous enough to have books or written about them or to be in the media. Here we are in 2026 and things have changed for the better, in some parts of the world, but s l o w l y. Women generally have more opportunities than we've had throughout history, especially to financially support ourselves through education, employment, or business, and yet, sex trafficking, the absolute worst, an especially vile form of forced prostitution, a form of horrible violence to the body and the psyche, continues. And it would not exist if certain men (and some women) were not interested in sexually abusing women (and some men), including infants, boys and girls, and teens too young to be legal. It must end.

For Virginia, and many of those who have experienced being sex trafficked, first usually groomed or tricked into providing sexual "services" to strangers and others who have no respect or love for them, life can be emotionally and psychologically difficult forevermore. Virginia, though the years had gone by and she had established herself as a wife and mother in  Australia, did speak out, and so did many others; it's possible that the number of victims of Epstein, and his cohort, Ghislaine Maxwell, personally abused goes closer to a thousand. He like the All-American look, the girl-next-door, who was skinny and looked twelve to seventeen years old. Some of them didn't have the terrible experiences Virginia had before and were virgins.

Reading the book, I learned that Virginia had been molested and raped as a child for years. She had been a runaway whose parents had committed her as a fifteen year old juvenile delinquent to a program that was also abusive to the teens in its care. When she ran away from it, she was raped by two predators, one who strangled her, one who was running a fake modeling agency. Eventually the program came under scrutiny and the operator of the fake modeling agency was arrested, but not just because of her experiences. She felt her powerlessness and had no one at that point to tell. She had panhandled and done drugs - and would do them - including acid, ecstasy, Xanax, and cocaine. She had gone hungry at times. She had no money. She had been turned into a prostitute and was a high school drop out before she ever got her job at Donald Trumps Mar-A-Lago Club, where she was recruited by Ghislaine Maxwell, to be exploited by herself and Jeffrey Epstein. Sadly, it would seem that in Virginia's family her mother may have well known that her daughter was being molested by her father, as well as her father's friend.

About half this book is dedicated to what happened after years had gone by and she was contacted by Maxwell, who basically stated that Epstein was being prosecuted and wanted to know if Virginia was going to tell all. She was for many years protective of her family, unaware of the way some "journalists" operate, and torn because she didn't want what happened to her to keep happening. Eventually she activated.

Virginia committed suicide months before the publication of this book, which is being read around the world, creating discussions about sexuality, prostitution, and criminality. (My local library had over a thousand people on the wait lists for the book in text, audio, and electronic versions, before they even got a copy in to borrow!) Virginia's co-author, Amy Wallace, has done a valiant job of being interviewed about her interactions with Virginia as they wrote this book together. And in November 2025, when the House and Senate of the United States decided to vote to have the Epstein Files opened to the world, many of the women who survived their victimization stood together and credited Virginia - her honesty - with moving the cause of ending sex trafficking ahead. This has become a discussion of what people in power can and often do to those who do not have it.

There are many who believe that Virginia was pressured into suicide, that she feared for her life and that of her family members, because there were very rich and successful people who she had sex with, people who could (and in my opinion, should) loose everything, if what they did becomes known. President Donald Trump has also been criticized for adding the reveal of the Epstein File documents to his campaign promises and then putting up a great big fuss about their release.

Chances are you have met someone who has been molested or raped before the age of 18. You also likely know someone who is a sex offender. It is never good or right and I believe Virginia Giuffre intended to help other's who had experiences like hers begin to heal.

Although my blog includes 'adult subjects' when I excerpt from this book, I must be careful, as I do not get explicit in my posts and also will not censor by changing the wording. I trust that my readers, who want more details, will want to read this riveting book as well.

I hope to do my best this month to honor Virginia Roberts Guiffre!

Missy

I've listened to dozens of YouTube podcasts, including those by Lady Colin Campbell, concerning what has happened in the Royal family and in Great Britain because of the scandal; Prince Andrew, the brother of King Charles III of the United Kingdom, was stripped of his titles and forced into an exile from all things Royal last fall. Not only have I featured Lady Colin Campbell, who had originally defended Prince Andrew and considered Virginia to be a teenage prostitute, but I dedicated a month to Sarah, Duchess of York, also stripped of her titles and all things Royal, who was once married to Prince Andrew and who lived in the same (granted, very large house) with him for decades. 

I think the situation with Andrew and Sarah and Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell is likely far more complicated that we can imagine.

You may be interested in these archived posts:

April 2021

Special Topic

SEX TRAFFICKING : MORE PEOPLE ARE SEX TRAFFICKED TODAY THEN THERE WERE EVER AFRICAN SLAVES IN AMERICA

September 2023

SARAH DUCHESS OF YORK : STANDING BY HER MAN NO MATTER WHAT : DIVORCED TO HER EX HUSBAND PRINCE ANDREW : HONORARY MISTRESS OF THE MONTH

June 2024

THE ECCENTRIC and HIGHLY OPINIONATED LADY COLIN CAMPBELL (GEORGIE ZIADIE) :  MISTRESSES WERE UNDERSTOOD A CERTAIN WAY  As a note, Lady Colin Campbell has stated on her YouTube channel that she thinks that Virginia was a teenage prostitute who recruited other girls who were also hurt.

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