Prince Andrew’s pay-off to sex accuser Virginia Giuffre ‘was as little as £3m’ despite reports of £12m

PRINCE Andrew’s pay-off to sex abuse accuser Virginia Giuffre was as little as a quarter of the reported £12million.

Sources say his lawyers negotiated a cut-price deal of £3million-to-£5million.

That was as much money the disgraced Duke could scrape together quickly to halt her civil lawsuit.

It may explain why Ms Giuffre, 38, was not forced to sign a gagging order as part of the deal — and is now free to write a “tell-all” book, which she promises to do.

It comes after The Sun revealed last week that Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson have bought a £5million house in London’s swanky Mayfair — despite moaning about being hard-up.

A source said: “It was thought, and widely reported, that Virginia got a settlement of £12million from Andrew, but that’s not right.

“It was far less than that, as low as £3million.

“No doubt this will have influenced the conditions of the agreement that she was prepared to sign.”

Ms Giuffre, a victim of sex trafficking at the hands of paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, claimed Andrew raped and abused her when she was 17.

Although the agreement, reached in February, contained no formal admission of liability or apology from Andrew, it said he accepted Ms Giuffre was a “victim of abuse” and regretted his association with Epstein.

A spokeswoman for Prince Andrew was approached for comment.