It’s our 28th anniversary today, not really a “milestone” number, but still worth marking. I’d like to thank every member of the team who contributed positively to the growth of Lucire over the years, and I know if I start naming names, I’d risk missing people out accidentally. We have more nice surprises in store as a business as we conclude 2025 and begin 2026, and I’m glad the current team are with us on this next stage of this journey.
Because of time zones, we launched on October 21, 1997 in New Zealand time, at the stroke of midnight. October 21, 2025 marks the launch of something far more explosive, as most of us in the occident will know: the late Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s memoir, Nobody’s Girl: a Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice, being released by Penguin Random House today.
The UK Royal Family has done an incredible job of marketing the book by Prince Andrew’s ill-timed decision to give up his titles last Friday, which rolled into the news on Monday morning amid allegations that he asked a member of the Metropolitan Police to dig up dirt on Giuffre. Had the Prince been more prescient, he could have made his move far earlier. It reminds me of how well Meta marketed Sarah Wynn-Williams’s book Careless People by taking legal action against her; without it, I doubt I’d have heard of it.
Another author has benefited considerably from the royal news, namely Dr Andrew Lownie, whose book Entitled: the Rise and Fall of the House of York made numerous allegations against the Prince that have gradually been revealed as correct, including the Prince’s far lengthier connection and more frequent contact with the late pædophile Jeffrey Epstein.
ITV1, BBC News and the Telegraph interviewed Dr Lownie on Monday where he spoke with some authority, based on his research, on the damning evidence he uncovered and what his expectations would be—including the potential imprisonment of the Prince. Lownie’s allegations go far further, including questioning the Prince’s conduct during his time as a special trade envoy for the UK, and that he has cases to answer both in his own country and the USA.
This, of course, risks overshadowing Giuffre’s own story, which is far about more than Prince Andrew, but an entire culture of sexual abuse, sexism, trafficking, the cover-ups by people in power, and the importance of awareness, justice and holding abusers to account. In the United States, many people, including politicians, continue to call for the release of the Epstein “list” and to reveal the network who abused and trafficked the children. One petition is likely to receive the necessary 218 votes to put the matter to a House vote.
Prince Andrew continues to deny all allegations made against him by Giuffre.
Giuffre’s book will no doubt be the main talking point of news programmes in a good part of the world today, and we hope it will make lasting impact in exposing this shadowy world of the rich and powerful, and help bring justice and resolve to the survivors of sexual abuse.
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