Virginia Roberts Giuffre outside a Manhattan court in August 2019. Her ghostwriter, Amy Wallace, will be appearing with Emily Maitlis at the All About Women festival in Sydney. Photograph: Bebeto Matthews/AP
Amy Wallace spent years helping Giuffre write her life story. Now she reflects on what the survivor would have thought of the release of the Epstein files
T here are many reasons why Amy Wallace wishes Virginia Roberts Giuffre was still alive. Some are personal. Some are practical. But at its heart pulse the reverberations of a child sex trafficking scandal that reaches into palaces and courtrooms across the globe.
Wallace is the now very visible ghostwriter behind the posthumous memoir Nobodys Girl, by Jeffrey Epsteins best-known accuser.
I was supposed to be the invisible ghostwriter, which I was perfectly happy to be and thats what I signed up to do, Wallace says.
But Giuffres April 2025 suicide at her farm near Perth catapulted her impending memoir, and its San-Francisco-based author, into a spotlight that was already burning brightly.
Because I stepped forward at the publishers request and promoted the book, people got in touch with me to tell me how the book had affected them, Wallace says.
If I could show Virginia one email of all the emails that I have gotten, it is actually from a woman in Australia.
The email came from a 70-year-old woman who said Giuffres book helped her understand the impact of having been abused by a neighbour as a five-year-old C a fact she had never disclosed to anyone.
Men too spoke of how the book helped them make sense of past horrors, Wallace says. There were 40,087 victims of sexual assault recorded in Australia in 2024 C an increase of 10% on the previous year, according to the Bureau of Statistics.
It is moving, and I know that is the reason that Virginia wrote the book. She was very clear about it C she wanted to help other people who had any kind of trauma.
I just know that [the emails] would have made her so proud.
T his Sunday, at the All About Women 2026 festival in Sydney, Wallace and British journalist Emily Maitlis will examine the institutions that turned a blind eye to Epsteins dark world. In 2019, Maitlis famously put then prince Andrew, the duke of York, on the record about his relationship with Epstein, and questioned him during a now-notorious BBC Newsnight interview about Giuffres allegations that he had sex with her while she was still a teenager .
Once regarded as the late Queens favourite son and a decorated war veteran, Mountbatten-Windsors reputation went into freefall after the interview and his name became synonymous with the Epstein scandal.
He stepped down from royal duties and in 2022 reportedly paid a 0512m out-of-court settlement to Giuffre over the allegations of sexual abuse, which he has consistently denied.
By late 2025, his brother, King Charles, removed Mountbatten-Windsors royal titles and he was ordered to leave the Royal Lodge.
Last month, the former prince was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office over allegations he shared confidential information with Epstein. He has denied any wrongdoing in relation to his dealings with Epstein.
Commentators hail this as the biggest scandal in royal modern history and Wallace maintains Giuffres tireless campaign played a role.
F ive years in the making, Nobodys Girl was published in October 2025 and topped the New York Times bestseller book list for 19 consecutive weeks (it is currently in fifth position), selling millions of copies worldwide.
In stories involving the powerful, Wallace understood that precision was protection.
Interviews were recorded and archived. Drafts were moved offsite. Audio files were secured. The mechanics of ghostwriting merged with contingency planning.
Wallace says those recordings remain hidden in a secret location.
It was investigative, it was emotional and personal and intimate, Wallace says. It was all different kinds of things at once and I havent necessarily had a project ever that let me use all those parts of myself as a writer.
The book makes for harrowing reading.
It details extreme trauma, including childhood sexual assault and predation by very wealthy, very powerful people. From the outset, the project carried risk.
Giuffre spoke often of fears for her life and for her children, Wallace says.
She had warned publicly, on social media, that if she were ever found dead she did not want it presumed to be suicide.
The coroners court of Western Australia says it is investigating the circumstances surrounding Giuffres death and WA police say that it is not being treated as suspicious.
Both Wallace and Giuffres Perth-based lawyer, Karrie Louden, believe Giuffre died at age 41 by suicide, dismissing suggestions of foul play.
But there were other risks Giuffre knew that she was undertaking by telling her story. She also feared the threat C which had been made explicitly in at least one case C of being kept in the courtrooms for the rest of her life, Wallace says.
I think when people hear that, obviously its expensive to be kept in a court case for the rest of your life, but also for survivors of trauma it is torturous because youre basically asked over and over again to say where did he put his hand, where did you put your whatever, over and over again.
We ultimately decided the book wasnt just a list of names. It wasnt just a list. But man, we talked about it all the time, she wanted to name all of them. I mean they deserve to be named. Thats why the Epstein files are important.
The US Department of Justice has released a tranche of about 3 million C just over half C of the 6 million pages of documents, images, videos and emails detailing Epsteins activities, after the US federal government mandated the Epstein files be released.
The DOJ stated in January that it had fulfilled its obligation.
Unlike the two previous books Wallace had ghostwritten about company business leaders, this book demanded immersion in trauma and a careful calibration between compassion and clarity.
The emotional toll on both women was immense.
I have a therapist and a lot of my therapy sessions were talking about either Virginia or how I could be sensitive to Virginia in terms of how to be careful, how to not re-injure her, Wallace says.
What I have learned is that victims of trauma, serious serial trauma like Virginia [suffered], her memory was amazing and incredibly accurate, but at times it was cut up into pieces.
The books production was a long road that spanned the globe, from Paris to Perth, and included living in the Giuffre home with their three children.
Even after Giuffres death, the journey continues for Wallace and she is calling on the US Department of Justice to investigate the men Giuffre told them she was trafficked to.
She talked to the FBI two different times and she gave them the names, Wallace says. Since 2011 they have known the names and those men have never been interviewed.
Wallace recalls celebrating historic moments, such as the conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell on sex trafficking charges with the Giuffre family.
I loved her, Wallace says. She was generous, she was funny, she was smart, she was kind, she was brave, so brave, and we were just an inseparable team for a long time, so losing her was terrible.
It has been a privilege to get her story out. I just wish, obviously, that she was here to see the reaction.
艾米·华莱士花费数年时间协助吉弗尔撰写其人生故事。如今她思索着这位幸存者会如何看待爱泼斯坦档案的公开
艾米·华莱士（Amy Wallace）希望弗吉尼亚·罗伯茨·朱弗尔（Virginia Roberts Giuffre）仍在世的原因有很多。有些是出于个人情感，有些则基于现实考量。但最核心的，是一场波及全球王室与法庭的未成年人性交易丑闻所引发的持续震荡。
华莱士（Wallace）如今作为代笔人的身份已广为人知，他操刀完成了已故者回忆录《无名女孩》的撰写，该书由杰弗里·爱泼斯坦（Jeffrey Epstein）最知名的指控者所著。
华莱士表示："我本该是那个隐形的代笔人，对此我心甘情愿，这也是我当初签约时承诺要做的事。"
但朱弗雷（Giuffre）2025年4月在珀斯附近农场的自杀事件，将她即将出版的回忆录及其旧金山籍作者推向了本已炽热的聚光灯下。
华莱士表示：“由于我应出版社之邀出面推广这本书，许多读者联系我，向我讲述这本书如何影响了他们。”
如果要从我收到的所有邮件中选一封给弗吉尼亚看，那实际上是一封来自澳大利亚女性的邮件。
这封邮件来自一位70岁的女性。她表示，吉弗雷（Giuffre）的著作让她终于理解了五岁时遭邻居性侵带来的深远影响——这个事实她此前从未向任何人透露过。
华莱士表示，男性读者也谈到这本书如何帮助他们理解过去的恐怖经历。澳大利亚统计局数据显示，2024年该国记录的性侵受害者达40,087人，较上年增长10%。
这很感人，我知道这正是弗吉尼亚写这本书的原因。她对此非常明确——她想帮助那些遭受过任何创伤的人。
我确信[这些邮件]一定会让她倍感骄傲。
本周日，在悉尼举行的"聚焦女性2026"活动上，华莱士与英国记者艾米莉·梅特利斯将共同审视那些对爱泼斯坦黑暗行径视而不见的机构。2019年，梅特利斯曾在一场如今臭名昭著的BBC《新闻之夜》访谈中，迫使约克公爵安德鲁王子公开承认与爱泼斯坦的关系，并针对朱弗雷指控其在她未成年时发生性行为一事进行质询，该事件已载入史册。
作为已故女王最宠爱的儿子和战功赫赫的退伍军人，蒙巴顿-温莎（Mountbatten-Windsor）原本备受尊崇。然而那次访谈后，他的声誉一落千丈，其名字更与爱泼斯坦（Epstein）丑闻紧密相连。
他辞去了王室职务，并于2022年据称向朱弗雷支付了1200万英镑的庭外和解金，以了结性侵指控，但他始终否认这些指控。
2025年底，他的兄长查尔斯国王褫夺了蒙巴顿-温莎的王室头衔，并勒令其搬离皇家别墅。
上月，这位前王子因涉嫌在公职期间行为不当被捕，指控称其与爱泼斯坦共享机密信息。他否认与爱泼斯坦往来中存在任何不当行为。
评论家们将此事誉为现代王室历史上的最大丑闻，而华莱士坚称吉弗雷的不懈努力在其中起到了作用。
历经五年打磨，《无名女孩》于2025年10月出版后，连续19周蝉联《纽约时报》畅销书榜首（目前排名第五位），全球销量突破数百万册。
华莱士深知，在涉及权贵的报道中，精准即是一种保护。
采访内容被记录并存档。文稿草稿转移至异地保存。音频文件得到妥善保管。代笔写作的流程与应急预案融为一体。
华莱士表示，那些录音仍被藏匿在一个秘密地点。
“它既有调查性，又充满情感、个人化和亲密感，”华莱士说道。“这个项目同时涵盖了多种元素，作为作家，我从未有过一个能让我如此全面展现自我的创作。”
这本书读起来令人揪心。
该文详述了极端创伤经历，包括童年遭受性侵及被极其富有且权势滔天者侵害的过程。该项目从一开始就充满风险。
华莱士表示，朱弗瑞经常谈及对自己和孩子们生命的担忧。
她曾在社交媒体上公开警告称，如果有一天她被发现有死亡的情况，不希望被假定为自杀。
西澳大利亚州验尸法庭表示，正在调查吉弗雷（Giuffre）死亡的相关情况；西澳警方则称，该事件“未被视作可疑案件”处理。
华莱士和朱弗雷的珀斯律师卡丽·劳登均认为，41岁的朱弗雷系自杀身亡，并排除了他杀的可能性。
但朱弗雷（Giuffre）清楚，讲述自己的故事还伴随着其他风险。华莱士（Wallace）表示："她还害怕面临一种威胁——至少在一个案例中曾被明确提及——即余生都将被困在法庭上。"
我认为当人们听到这些时，显然，余生都被困在一场官司中代价高昂，但对于创伤幸存者来说更是种折磨——因为你基本上会被反复追问‘他把手放在哪儿了？你当时又做了什么？’诸如此类的问题。
我们最终认定这本书不仅仅是一份名单。它绝非简单的罗列。但天啊，我们一直在讨论这件事——她执意要列出所有人的名字。我是说，这些人值得被具名。这正是爱泼斯坦文件的重要性所在。
在美国联邦政府要求公开"爱泼斯坦档案"后，美国司法部已公布了约300万页（略超半数）的文件、图片、视频和电子邮件，这些资料总计600万页，详细记录了爱泼斯坦的活动。
美国司法部于一月声明已履行其义务。
与华莱士此前为公司商业领袖代笔的两本书不同，这本书需要深入创伤主题，并在同理心与清晰度之间寻求精妙的平衡。
两位女性都承受了巨大的情感压力。
华莱士表示：“我有一位心理治疗师，在多次治疗中，我们讨论的话题要么是关于弗吉尼亚，要么就是如何在对她保持敏感的同时做到谨慎行事，避免再次伤害到她。”
据我所知，像弗吉尼亚这样遭受严重连环创伤的受害者，其记忆往往惊人地准确且细致入微，但有时这些记忆会被割裂成碎片。
这本书的创作过程漫长而艰辛，足迹遍布全球——从巴黎到珀斯，期间作者还曾与朱弗雷一家同住，和他们三个孩子共同生活。
即便在吉弗雷去世后，华莱士的追寻仍未停止。她呼吁美国司法部对吉弗雷生前指认的那些拐卖她的人展开调查。
华莱士表示：“她曾两次向联邦调查局（FBI）提供线索并告知相关人员姓名。自2011年起，FBI就已掌握这些人的信息，却始终未对他们进行问询。”
华莱士回忆起与朱弗雷一家共同庆祝历史性时刻的场景，例如吉斯莱恩·麦克斯韦因性交易罪名被定罪。
“我爱她，”华莱士说道，“她慷慨大方、风趣幽默、聪慧善良，而且非常勇敢，无比勇敢。在很长一段时间里，我们形影不离，是一个不可分割的团队，所以失去她让我痛不欲生。”
能讲述她的故事是我的荣幸。当然，我多么希望此刻她能在场，亲眼看到这些反响。
原创文章，作者：马超，如若转载，请注明出处：http://m.gaochengzhenxuan.com/rebang/9826.html
