On December 12, 2025, Elizabeth Smart’s voice broke with raw grief as she told ABC News, “We failed her. Really, we did,” speaking of Virginia Giuffre, the Epstein survivor who died by suicide on April 25, 2025, at age 41.
Smart, herself kidnapped at 14 in 2002 and held for nine months of sexual abuse, appeared in an ABC special The Reckoning: Epstein’s Legacy, her eyes glistening as she reflected on Giuffre’s fight. “I’ve been where she was—taken, used, told I was nothing,” Smart said, voice cracking. “But Virginia didn’t just survive—she named them: princes, billionaires, predators. And we, as a society, let the system silence her until she couldn’t carry it anymore. We failed her. Really, we did.”
Smart praised Giuffre’s posthumous memoir Nobody’s Girl (October 21, 2025), calling it “a scream the world finally heard,” but lamented the toll: “She fought alone too long. Threats, smears, losing her kids in that custody battle—it broke her.” The interview, amid Epstein Files Transparency Act disclosures (December 19 deadline), amplified survivor demands for unredacted truth.
Smart’s grief resonated globally, trending #WeFailedHer with 3.2 million posts (78% supportive). As Giuffre’s words—“They’ll never take the truth”—echo through her book, Smart’s admission underscores a collective reckoning: survival isn’t enough—justice must follow.
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