Britain's Prince Andrew reportedly only paid Virginia Giuffre a quarter of her multi-million-dollar settlement.
Giuffre accused the Duke of York of sexually abusing her when she was a teenager, but the case was settled out of court in February this year.
Giuffre had sued the Duke in a Manhattan federal court, with part of the settlement being an undisclosed payment to the now 38-year-old.
Andrew denied Giuffre's accusations that he forced her to have sex more than two decades ago at a London home of former Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, as well as abusing her at two of Epstein's properties. Giuffre has been one of Epstein's and Maxwell's most prominent accusers.
It's believed the settlement amounted to around NZ$23.19 million; however, a source allegedly told The Sun newspaper that the Duke's lawyers formulated a deal, meaning he only paid NZ$5.79 million to Giuffre.
"It was thought, and widely reported, that Virginia got a settlement of £12 million from Andrew, but that's not right," the source claimed.
"It was far less than that, as low as £3 million. No doubt this will have influenced the conditions of the agreement that she was prepared to sign."
While the agreement contained no formal admission of liability or apology from Andrew, it said he accepted Giuffre was a "victim of abuse" and regretted his association with Epstein.
Epstein, a convicted sex offender and former financier, died in August 2019 in his jail cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York. He had been apprehended the month prior on federal charges for the sex trafficking of minors in Florida and New York.
Since Epstein's death precluded the possibility of pursuing criminal charges against him, a judge dismissed all criminal charges later that month.
Maxwell, a British convicted sex offender and former socialite, was found guilty of child sex trafficking and other offences in connection with Epstein in 2021 and was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment on June 28, 2022.
