She was just 20, working at a New York spa, when Ghislaine Maxwell walked in and changed her life forever.
Johanna Sjoberg never expected to become a key witness in one of the most explosive trials of the century. In court, her voice steady but heavy with memory, she described how Maxwell recruited her with promises of opportunity—only to pull her into Jeffrey Epstein’s world of “massages” that were anything but innocent.
She told of witnessing abuse up close.
She recounted the night Prince Andrew placed his hand on her breast while they posed for a photo with a puppet—laughing, casual, as if it meant nothing.
Her testimony wasn’t speculation. It was lived truth—raw, detailed, impossible to unhear.
Years later, those words still echo, forcing the world to confront what power tried to hide.
And the names she named? They’re still listening.
She was just 20, working at a New York spa, when Ghislaine Maxwell walked in and changed her life forever.
Johanna Sjoberg never expected to become a key witness in one of the most explosive legal sagas of the century. In 2001, as a student at Palm Beach Atlantic University, she was approached by Maxwell with promises of a job as a personal assistant—seemingly legitimate opportunity for a young woman in need. Instead, it pulled her into Jeffrey Epstein’s meticulously orchestrated world of exploitation, where “massages” were code for something far darker. Sjoberg testified in a 2016 deposition—unsealed years later—that she was recruited for sexual acts with Epstein, reprimanded when she failed to satisfy him, and drawn into a network that normalized abuse under the guise of luxury and privilege.
Her testimony, given under oath in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was raw, detailed, and impossible to dismiss. She described witnessing the grooming and trafficking of young women firsthand. Most shockingly, she recounted a night in Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse around Easter 2001, where she met Prince Andrew. Maxwell retrieved a caricature puppet of the Duke—modeled after his Spitting Image likeness—from a closet. In what was presented as a “joking” moment, the group posed for a photo: Andrew and Virginia Giuffre on a couch, the puppet on Giuffre’s lap with its hand on her breast, and Sjoberg on Andrew’s lap while he placed his hand on hers. “Andrew put his hand on my breast,” she stated plainly, describing the incident as casual, laughing—as if it meant nothing to those involved.
Sjoberg’s account wasn’t speculation or hearsay; it was lived experience, corroborated by flight logs, timelines, and other survivors’ statements. She also mentioned encounters with figures like David Copperfield (who asked if she knew girls were paid to recruit others) and Epstein’s casual name-dropping of powerful men, including claims that Bill Clinton “likes them young, referring to girls.” None of these details accused wrongdoing by all named, but they painted a chilling picture of how influence and wealth shielded predation.
Years later, those words still echo, amplified by the 2024 unsealing of Epstein-related documents from Giuffre’s defamation suit against Maxwell (convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking). Prince Andrew, who has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and called the allegations “categorically untrue,” settled civilly with Giuffre in 2022 for an undisclosed sum and lost royal titles. Yet Sjoberg’s testimony—steady, heavy with memory—forced renewed scrutiny, reminding the world of the human cost behind the headlines.
As of early 2026, Sjoberg, now in her mid-40s and reportedly running a business in Florida, remains a quiet but enduring voice in the Epstein reckoning. Her words continue to resonate amid ongoing calls for full transparency in the remaining “Epstein Files” and reforms to statutes of limitations on child sex crimes.
The names she named? They’re still listening. Her truth, delivered without theatrics, refuses to fade—proof that even the most guarded secrets can crack under the weight of unflinching testimony.
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