Imagine the scene: a young massage therapist, barely out of her teens, sits in Jeffrey Epstein’s lavish New York mansion. Laughter fills the room. A grotesque puppet of Prince Andrew is placed on Virginia Giuffre’s chest, its hand positioned exactly where it shouldn’t be. Then the real Prince Andrew—smiling, relaxed—reaches over and touches Johanna Sjoberg’s breast in full view of everyone.
It wasn’t hidden. It wasn’t discreet. It was brazen, casual, and captured in sworn testimony. Sjoberg, who worked for Epstein at the time, later described the moment under oath: a royal’s hand on her body, right there in the open, while the group posed for photos and giggled.
Her allegation now stands beside Virginia Giuffre’s as the second powerful voice accusing Prince Andrew of sexual misconduct—raising the haunting question of how many more women were treated the same way.
Imagine the scene: a young massage therapist, barely out of her teens, sits in Jeffrey Epstein’s lavish New York mansion. Laughter fills the room. A grotesque puppet of Prince Andrew is placed on Virginia Giuffre’s chest, its hand positioned exactly where it shouldn’t be. Then the real Prince Andrew—smiling, relaxed—reaches over and touches Johanna Sjoberg’s breast in full view of everyone.
It wasn’t hidden. It wasn’t discreet. It was brazen, casual, and captured in sworn testimony. Sjoberg, who worked for Epstein at the time, later described the moment under oath: a royal’s hand on her body, right there in the open, while the group posed for photos and giggled.
Her allegation now stands beside Virginia Giuffre’s as the second powerful voice accusing Prince Andrew of sexual misconduct—raising the haunting question of how many more women were treated the same way.
The incident took place in 2001 inside Epstein’s sprawling Manhattan townhouse. Johanna Sjoberg, then 21 and employed as a massage therapist, was drawn into Epstein’s circle under the promise of legitimate work. In her 2016 deposition—part of the Giuffre v. Maxwell civil case and later unsealed—Sjoberg recounted how Ghislaine Maxwell produced a caricature puppet of Prince Andrew, originally from the British satirical television program Spitting Image. The puppet bore a tag confirming its identity.
The mood was playful at first. Someone suggested taking photographs. Virginia Giuffre and Prince Andrew sat together on a couch. The puppet was placed on Giuffre’s lap, its hand deliberately positioned on her breast. Sjoberg was then told to sit on Andrew’s lap. As the camera clicked and laughter echoed, Andrew placed his hand on Sjoberg’s breast. She testified plainly: “Andrew put his hand on my breast, and they took a photo.” The act was performed openly in the formal living room, with Epstein, Maxwell, and Giuffre all present and apparently untroubled.
Sjoberg’s account does not allege further assault by the prince, but it captures a chilling moment of normalized violation. What began as a supposed joke quickly crossed into humiliation, exposing the casual entitlement that reportedly defined Epstein’s inner world. Young women, often recruited with offers of money or opportunity, were reduced to objects of amusement for the powerful.
This episode complements the far more serious allegations made by Virginia Giuffre, who claimed she was trafficked by Epstein and Maxwell to Prince Andrew for sex when she was 17. Giuffre’s civil lawsuit against the Duke of York ended in a 2022 out-of-court settlement, with no admission of liability from Andrew, who has consistently denied all wrongdoing. Buckingham Palace has dismissed Sjoberg’s claims as “categorically untrue,” and the prince has rejected any suggestion of improper conduct.
Epstein’s operation relied on wealth, influence, and silence. Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking minors and is serving a 20-year prison sentence. Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting his own trial. Sjoberg’s testimony, given under oath, adds another layer to the disturbing portrait of exploitation that thrived behind closed doors.
The puppet incident—grotesque, mocking, yet disturbingly real—stands as a symbol of how far boundaries could be erased in Epstein’s orbit. It forces a reckoning: how many other young women endured similar or worse treatment, too intimidated, ashamed, or disbelieved to speak? Each unsealed document and each survivor’s voice chips away at the long silence that once shielded the powerful. Sjoberg’s memory of that moment ensures the question lingers, unanswered but impossible to ignore.
Leave a Reply