Buckingham Palace said King Charles III will not meet Sky Roberts during the monarch’s state visit to the United States, after Roberts called for a face-to-face encounter with survivors of sexual abuse. The four-day visit begins April 27 and will take Charles and Queen Camilla to Washington and New York.
Roberts told that he wants “the king to look me in the face, to see my sister in me. I’m her blood. I want him to see Virginia in a different way than just reading it in the news.” He said the trip should not be treated as a celebration. “This isn’t about the king coming here and partying and celebrating with Trump. This should be about you coming here and taking a stand, to set an example for other world leaders and come forward for survivors,” he said.
The palace said it understands the position of survivors and their advocates, but said even a meeting that could affect ongoing police inquiries, assessments or possible legal action would be “to the detriment of the survivors themselves in their pursuit of justice.” It added that Charles’s constitutional role, especially with regard to the judicial process, means it cannot take even a small risk that a meeting or public comments could affect the proper course of the law.
The refusal lands in a case that has shadowed the royal family for years. Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who died by suicide a year ago at 41, was one of the most outspoken survivors against Jeffrey Epstein and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. Epstein trafficked Giuffre when she was 17 and died by suicide in prison in 2019 while still awaiting trial. Andrew settled a civil lawsuit with Giuffre in 2022 without admitting wrongdoing, then was stripped of his titles in 2025 and forced out of his royal residence. He was also arrested this year on suspicion of misconduct in public office over allegations that he passed confidential documents to Epstein.
Charles and Camilla are due at a black-tie state dinner at the White House and a private tea event during the visit, which is also intended to mark the 250th anniversary of America’s independence. Against that backdrop, Roberts is pressing for a meeting that would put the king face to face with one of the families most directly affected by the Epstein scandal, while the palace is drawing a hard line around the legal risks it says it cannot afford to create.