When Good Weekend senior writer Melissa Fyfe and WAtoday journalist Carla Hildebrandt set out to write about Jeffrey Epstein’s most famous victim, Virginia Giuffre, it began as a piece about the legal battle over her multimillion-dollar estate. But as the reporters started their detailed investigation, a much darker story emerged about the events leading up to her death by suicide in April 2025.

Here, Mel and Carla talk about their compelling Good Weekend cover story and a four-part podcast series detailing the anguish Giuffre suffered as she endured domestic violence, a court order denying access to her children, debilitating health issues and the toll of living in the public eye.

How did you first discover this story, and how long have you been researching it?

Mel: We’ve been investigating this story for about six months. Late last year, I had finished a couple of other investigations, and I was thinking about what my next story would be. It was suggested that Virginia Giuffre’s Australian life would be an interesting topic. At the time there was an ongoing battle over her estate in the WA Supreme Court. As I researched, I realised that Virginia had died while she was under a restraining order that prevented her from seeing her children. It’s quite unusual for a mother to be banned from seeing her kids, so that piqued my interest: how did that happen? Why would Virginia be deemed a risk to her children? I realised that I needed help with the West Australian side of things, so I asked Carla, as she had been covering the estate case.

Carla: I had been stumped by the particulars of the case. Virginia’s carer Cheryl Myers and lawyer Karrie Louden were saying Virginia had an “informal will”. The overwhelming sentiment when I discussed the case with people was: “How sad, look at these people trying to get her money now she’s gone.” But a different picture began to emerge once I spoke to their lawyer at the time. He told me that Myers and Louden wanted Virginia’s three children to receive most of the estate – more than they would if they successfully challenged the informal will. I was looking for the next investigation to throw myself into and this case had more questions than answers. Then, in December, Mel contacted me. The timing couldn’t have been better.

Mel: Carla and I soon realised that the story was hiding in plain sight. There were some media reports, including an incredible 60 Minutes piece in September 2025, but it wasn’t widely known that Virginia had accused her husband Robbie Giuffre of domestic abuse. We realised that few people were connecting the dots between the estate case and what Virginia and her family had said about Robbie. Here was a man who stood to gain financially from Virginia’s estate, which was built by compensation payments from the trauma she suffered from sex trafficking. But, according to her, he was also an abuser.

What was involved in researching this investigation?

Mel: We spoke to dozens of people: her family in the US, people who had witnessed the aftermath of violent episodes during their marriage, Virginia’s publicist, her Australian friends in three states (Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia), domestic violence experts and lawyers. We did plenty of research into the family violence restraining order system, and investigated how coercive control works.

Carla: We spoke to Virginia’s family and friends at all hours of the day and night because they were based across New York, Colorado and Florida. Between the different US time zones and the two- to three-hour time difference between Melbourne and Perth, co-ordinating interviews was often a challenge.

I travelled across Western Australia – from Neergabby to Perth’s Wheatbelt and down to Dunsborough – for the story. I knocked on doors and visited cafes, shops and stock feed yards, asking people about their interactions with Virginia. Many people had stories to tell, but convincing them to speak on the record was another matter. More often than not, the response was: “I don’t want to get involved.”

Much has been written and said about Virginia. Were her family and friends wary of opening up for this story?

Mel: The Epstein scandal is such a global news obsession that Virginia’s family and friends are always being asked by documentary makers, journalists and podcasters to be interviewed for various projects. We started talking to Dini von Mueffling, Virginia’s publicist and friend, early on and gradually gained her trust and that of Virginia’s brothers, Sky and Danny, and their wives, Amanda and Lanette.

The reason for this is possibly that, from the start, we were focused on looking at the systems that failed Virginia and uncovering how she’d been failed. Sky and Danny were clear that their sister would have wanted change to ensure women were not treated this way in future. We wanted the family to know we would tell Virginia’s story with care.

It was, however, still an uphill battle to get the access we really wanted. This is partly because Sky and Amanda are incredibly busy with a lot of activism around the Epstein files and legal reform in the US. But there was also the complicating factor of the estate case. The former lawyers for that case didn’t want us to talk to Cheryl Myers in case it jeopardised their side of the argument. It took about three months of, well, nagging really, to get them to let us talk to her, and then only with strict conditions.

That was a real moment for us. Myers was the only person with Virginia consistently in those last four months (Virginia suffered a degenerative spinal issue, among other health issues, and was often in a wheelchair).

There’s much pain, trauma and heartbreak in this story, but there are also moments of real love. Virginia’s relationship with her brothers, Sky and Danny, is one of devotion. And there’s Myers, who says she loved Virginia and describes her as the daughter she never had. What was it like to talk to these people away from the headlines?

Mel: Sky, Danny, Amanda and Lanette are formidable advocates for Virginia. I got to chat to Danny the most, which I really enjoyed. Sky is still very raw from finding Virginia after her suicide, he cries often and wears his heart on his sleeve. His love for his sister is huge. That’s true of all the family in the US. But it’s really the love that Cheryl had for Virginia that stood out. Cheryl has an inner fierceness as an advocate and carer. She doesn’t really care what people think of her, and she stood up for Virginia in a wonderful way. And she’s still doing that. I’ve loved my many chats with Cheryl.

Carla: Cheryl truly has been a delight. I met with her for coffee the other week, and we lost track of time – three hours later we were both late to appointments. She is such a kindhearted lady. She is very clever and unassuming.

Mel: Her love for Virginia is extraordinary, and the listener can hear that love in her voice. She’s the heart and soul of the podcast really.

You had access to Virginia’s diaries and texts. How was the experience of reading through those extremely personal messages?

Mel: What comes through is Virginia’s warmth, intelligence and humour. She had so much love for the people in her life. She’s very funny, one minute she’s joking about some cow she’s drawn to keep her mind off how much she missed her kids, and the next she’s just devastated. What struck us was how much she feared Robbie, that’s very clear. But also she’s telling people that, in those last four months, she found a kind of freedom to do, finally, what she wants. She’s so sad about her kids, but she’s not being as controlled.

Carla: Reading her private notes was one of the most moving parts of this investigation. It was almost like she was trying to make sense of what she had been through – at times jotting stream-of-consciousness words such as “daily arguments”, “untruthful” and “darkside” – while simultaneously thinking about how she could use her experience to advocate for other women experiencing domestic violence. In one of her notes, she writes a numbered list of how to spot unhealthy relationships, including recognising jealousy and controlling behaviour.

Was there one diary note or text message that opened your eyes or gave you a new perspective on Virginia’s story?

Mel: We’ve been building a ridiculously long timeline – it’s 22 pages – where we keep track of all the things that happened to Virginia: the settlements she received, the milestones in her married life. The last four months were the crucial timeframe. Every text message we have goes into that timeline. This is how we’ve been able to build a picture of what Virginia was doing when she had a restraining order against her and was quite isolated. We also looked at the metadata embedded in Virginia’s pictures of her injuries, to try and work out where she was. She was actually hotel-hopping shortly after a violent incident with Robbie on January 9, 2025, for example.

Quite late in our investigation – maybe five months in – we were looking carefully at a message that Virginia had sent her family in the US. She talks about going to court that day to get a restraining order against Robbie. We realised it was sent at 7.31am Perth time on January 14, 2025. Only a few hours later, Robbie would go to Perth Magistrates Court to get a restraining order against Virginia. If she’d gone just a little earlier, maybe things would have turned out differently. It turned out to be a real sliding doors moment.

Did you face any resistance in trying to report this story, or were there moments that made you question whether you would be able to tell it?

Carla: One of the biggest hurdles was simply getting access to information. We spent months trying to obtain court documents and understand how decisions had been made, but our applications weren’t granted. The WA attorney-general, chief magistrate and chief justice refused to be interviewed. Even the WA commissioner for victims of crime declined to comment. We also hit roadblocks with WA Police, who refused to answer questions on the case. Commissioner Col Blanch also declined to be interviewed.

It’s frustrating as we’ve seen police choose to release body-worn camera footage and triple zero calls in press releases and on their WA Police podcast.

In the end, we were able to build a picture through first-hand accounts, legal documents and sources, but the lack of openness raised serious questions about the WA justice system and the lack of transparency and public accountability.

Were you able to get Robbie Giuffre to talk to you?

Carla: We tried to talk to Robbie numerous times, and I actually ran into him in a WA court. He was notified that we wanted access to the transcript of a court hearing he was involved in. It was unusual for the magistrate to do this, but there we were: face to face. But he did not speak to me. We put all of the allegations in the podcast to Robbie’s lawyers, and they said in a statement that the pressure of the public eye had resulted in Virginia suffering significant mental health issues and overreliance on prescription medication. This, the statement said, may have led to Virginia’s “change of perspective”. The statement said Robbie was limited legally in responding to various unfounded allegations, but he and the children just want to remember Virginia as a “loving wife and mother”.

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) or Lifeline (13 11 14).