Ghislaine Maxwell claims photo of Prince Andrew with accuser is "fake"

Disgraced former socialite Ghislaine Maxwell has claimed in a jailhouse interview with a U.K. broadcaster that a decades-old photograph of Prince Andrew with his sexual abuse

accuser Virginia Giuffre is "fake". Maxwell, a friend to British royalty, is imprisoned in Florida after her conviction and 20-year sentence for helping late financier

Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse girls. Giuffre has claimed she was trafficked by the pair to, among others, Andrew, King Charles III's younger brother. The 39-year-old

sued the discredited royal in a United States court, claiming they had sex in London when she was 17 and a minor under U..S law. He settled the sexual assault lawsuit at

considerable cost last year, sparing him the public humiliation of a trial. The prince, 62, has not been criminally charged and has continued to deny the

accusations. But he stepped back from royal duties and was stripped of his military titles amid a public outcry over the reported $16.3 million settlement. A

photograph of Andrew with his arm around Giuffre's waist and Maxwell standing next to them — said to have been taken in London in 2001 — is seen as crucial to the claim against

the prince. But in her U.S. federal prison interview with TalkTV, set to air in the UK on Monday evening, Maxwell, who has known him for decades, is adamant the image is not

genuine. "It's a fake. I don't believe it's real for a second, in fact I'm sure it's not," she states. "There's never been an original and further there is no photograph.

I've only ever seen a photocopy of it."